Loading...
August 12, 1962 - CormorantCormorant Exclusive Sunday Review Sketch by Judd Bennett of East Marion. Focus on Nature by Paul Stoutenburgh, Cutchogue By JUDD BENNETT Focus on Nature by Paul Stoutenburgh, Cutchogue By JUDD BENNETT Two Cormorants spent a part of the summer last y e a r sitting on a rock just off the beach and right below the bluff where I live. I often went to watch them from a favored "over- look" on the top of t h e bank above Long Island Sound. When they were there I felt an elation for I would then have a visit with* some old b i r d friends. The Cormorant and I had a long time of living much closer years ago on the very different beaches of southern California. Out there below a much more dramatic and spectacular coastal bluff there were thousands in vast gatherings. The P a c i f i c Cormorants, two species, l i v e d and bred near the food -rich kelp beds and their nests were in fracture- ledges of fossil- embedd- ed sandstone of creamy colors. This field trip, one of my first, Was for serious study of the Cor- morant. It certainly was for me the first time I'd actually lived many long days in or almost in a tsea bird rookery. It was a unique experience to say the least. Now, these many years later it is a little difficult to recall much of the over - whelming enthusiasm of that camp a n d time. Much has been forgotten but I do remember that t h e Comorant home is a very smelly Near Coastal Waters Actually if you choose to live 'near coastal waters you can not be too far away from the Cor- morants. There is no doubt about this bird being an interes'tiing feature of maritime life. Where men fish so does the Shag. Our eastern bird is the D o u b l e. Crested and those I studied so diligently in the west were but slightly different and s m a 11 e r Brandt and Baird. During the war when over -seas I remember days of boredom which were a little relieved when we listened and heard about the best things that had happened to those we knew. When my turn came I chose the story of my days in 'that . rank old rookery ,camp. I added, for some modifi- cation, an unusual eating exper- ience that happened at the wat- er's edge when we ate Abalone caught, sliced, beaten and cooked by the .sons of the Japanese farmer living high on the cliff above tthe Cormorant nests. Food and fishing are things exciting to most men and anyone with a t ish'ing is very seldom Few This Year Strangely there seems to be few Cormorants this year on the eastern end of the Island. Those in migration were here but went hastily north in Fong, wavering lines. Several times I have been out in search of these old friends at -their usual haunts- down in the sheltered q u i e t !harbor. T h i s beach in warm weather is .a swimming and resting haven for a few dozes White - winged. 'Scot ers, Common Tern, some Shore- birds and a handful of ,Sfiags. Here they could almost ;always be found acting just like the sum- mer visitors they are — eating, swimming and preening. After, coming out of the water Connorants have to expose their feathers for a thorough drying out necessary because of an odd- ity involving their oil glands Which appear to be on the meager side and furnish too little waterproofing for them. Unlike the Goose, Loon. and Duck which remain unaffected by w a t e r Cormorants become after a while sodden and miserably s o a k e d. This condition is not long en- dured. They spend hours in the sun with -wings fully extended. It is a strange sight to see Cor- morants hold out their wings and remain so motionless. Some few p e o p l e slightly done -in by an over -stay in a rowboat and bored with the baiting of hooks and with .the feeding of fish might think they are posing outrage- ously or are slightly addled birds trying out as models for an em- blem of, sorts. Even this elegant well -known posture fails them for they make a poor Bald Eagle. Went, To Marches After I concluded the t w o Shags on the rocks were im- matures failing to get the mes- sage and were absent from 'the breeding grounds for that very reason I made another field trip checking up on juveniles. I went to the marshes to be there at dawn hoping later to find my fisherman friend and ask ques- tions about summertime Cor- morants. He was there off -shore working his traps under t h e screaming Gulls cirefing with excitement in the hazy and yel- lowed morning light:' When the turmoil in the air increased I went over to the incoming boats. These fishermen would` surely know something a landsman - wouldn't about Shags for a I I boatmen are well acquainted with the Cormorant. And, they might still show that they held old pre- judices against this other f i s h catcher. They might still 'believe, as they once did, that the Cor- morant' was an enemy. The friend I chose for answers was concious of and a bit puzzled by the scarcity of` the Shags. He men- tioned the delight he always found in watching them around the trap poles and the reserva- tions that came to mind when they sat by and waited for a large Bluefish to stir up the But- terfish making them surface in- side the net. Here facination comes in, when the Cormorant, very decisively and carefully Picks out only a mid -swarm fish — an assured avoidance of any possible entanglement in the net lacings. They are that smart. When the traps are emptied 'the Shag goes to fish expertly in the wilder open waters. There again, he is on better terms with his world and in -his natural element. Were A Real Benefit My friend also knew that the Cormorants were basically of a real and vital benefit to h i m. This is so 'because they f e e d voraciously on the scrap -type Fish.. The take from salt water is of Sculpin, Gunnel, C u n n e r and others — from fresh water >f Carp, Bullhead, Crappie, Peroh and Stickleback. The Sculpin and gunner are the real enemies of :he commercial fisherman. Part rf the good the Cormorant does s in the balancing out — the ratural thinning of tremendous rumrbers of the undersirables. !'his helps correct the disturbed m,balance often created t h e s e `progress- driven" days in coastal lasin waters. Another rather unsung point in avor of this black sea bird is he individual and collective con - ersion of 'these trash fish, with stonishing rapidity by an un- sual digestive system, into solu- te phosphates and nitrates. Each nd every one, in and out of re colonies or flocks, stimulates sh nursery areas in low water ays and inlets by,4ertilizing luatic plants causing the dia- rms and algae to fl'orish and in irn furnish the basic needs of .1 life in water. Productivity of I fishlings increases in ratio richer waters. When the Comorant rests and the move hospitalble waters of the Sounds of the South. He is a welcome sight here ai -ways. i often for long inter vals he frequently resembles Loon 'but for colors. At a dis tance they look alike. The Shal lacks the whhite breast and tht white fore neck has a longer 'tail . a hooked beak and an all -over black color with a sheen of purple. These are the main dis. tinctions. Both of these w a t e r birds while on the surface, and wary with alarm, allow them- selves to sink a bit and swim low with much neck- twisting — always searchingly alive to all pdssible danger. A Submarine Chase The Cormorant" goes into the depths for a swift and expert Pursuit- of racing away f is h. When under and deep, 'the wings are often used as b r o a d i s h paddles. This 'submarine chase is indeed unique, remarkable and extraordinary. They sometimes go to the depth of one hundred feet or more. In contrast their Peculiar efforts at a take -off from on or, near the .surface has brought about the remark that Che Shag must have water on his tail fea'therss- before he can fly. On Long Island the autumnal flights, will soon begin in t he earliest days of Fall when the n o r t h e r n based breeders ,and their young gather, in G o o s e- like formations to leave the nest- ing areas om the Maine coast and northward. On arrival in bhe Spring, at these isolated places, they gather for the incubation of three of four pale blue eggs placed in twiggy and g r a s s y nests. If you ever visit one of these rookeries it will be hard to forget the hundreds of m e s s y write- smeared nests and the odor from them. It is heady with am- onia and penetratingly sharp. These unusual places are j u s t about as far from the cozy as one can get. The birds complain bitterly with awful' and un-nerv ing croaking crys. But a f t e r the nursery stint is over a n d they leave, theyn quiet down and become almost voiceless and much cleaner become m riefl:" Cormor- ants. do have a beauty all their own. Value In Peru The last . word about any sea - bird'like the Shag and -its value to man is in the Peruvian guano fertilizer deposits where the drop- pings are unbelievably thick and are ages old accumulations from the Cormorant called "Guanay ". This product has'great value and is sold the world over as an ex- tremely good and potent plant stimulant. Any prejudice against the old "Sea Crow," Shag or cormorant is unfair. The European Cormorant are seen on Long Island in the winter when our own Double- Crested is wintering on the the southern coast with the brown colored Florida Species. Once in a while Double- Crested Cormorant wings alone across a winter sky in the chilly quiet of saffron colored sundown mists. This Shag would be failing to follow his kind to the hospitalble waters of fhe Sounds of the South. He is a welcome sight here always.