Nannopterum auritum (formerly Phalacrocorax auritus) This birder watched incredulously, on 10 December 1995, when an immature, which had been feeding in the Genesee River between the piers at Charlotte, flew up to perch on the Summerville Pier. Winds were howling from the southwest at 22, gusting to 32 mph, creating a wind chill of about 21 below. “I am betting it will NOT spread its wings (to dry) in these conditions, but, I soon see it partially spread its wings, then fold them. That’s that, I figure. Nope, a few minutes later it has its wings spread out completely, facing into the wind, for about five seconds. “That’s all. Either it was just too cold, or its mission was accomplished with an instant freeze dry.” (Diary entry) This is a “large, primitive-looking waterbird whose appearance and habits might fit nicely into a Cretaceous landscape,” Robert Arbib has written. (Andrle, p. 30) After a 14 September 1996 RBA field trip, the leader described how “at least 100 double-crested Cormorants could be seen well off shore” at Charlotte, “long necks sticking up like a thicket of periscopes at the horizon.” (LG, September 1996) But even as this species has dramatically increased in its numbers here, so, too the controversy over its impact on sport fishing.BackgroundFrom species of concern in 1970, to burgeoning “pest” in 2000, this species has seen quite a turnaround in recent years. This is our only North American cormorant that is as likely to be found on interior waterways as it is along the coasts, and it is “more frequently cited than the others as conflicting with human interests in fisheries,” notes the profile of this species in The Birds of North America series. Numbers and range were greatly reduced by the early 1900s, probably because of direct persecution by humans, and some loss of inland habitat due to clearing for agriculture. Recent great increases in numbers in the northern and eastern parts of its range, and on southern wintering grounds, have further renewed the controversy over its impact on fisheries. Various explanations have been offered for its recent increases: 1) reduced mortality from pesticides, 2) increased food as a result of overfishing of large fish in some areas, and introduction of nonnative species in others, and 3) increased survival of overwintering birds. (BNA 441: 1-2, 4, 21-24)Local historyEaton (1910) recorded it as an occasional transient in Monroe and Wayne counties. (Eaton I: county charts)Edson, in 1935, said this species was “rather rare here, only having been reported six years since 1913 and as a rule but once or twice in each year, usually in fall or early winter, and for four years but one bird at a time. This year . . . two birds are to be seen along the lake shore.” (WBR, 28 October 1935) R. E. Horsey, in his listing of birds seen at Rochester and Monroe County from 1913 to 1936, indicated sightings in only seven years, on dates ranging from 27 September to 26 March, and never more than two at a time.However, after 1930, Arbib notes, “the population began to burgeon, and breeding colonies moved south along the coast, west up the St. Lawrence River drainage, and east along the north shores of the Great Lakes.” (Andrle, p. 30) Even so, one seen flying over the Summerville Pier on 21 October 1947 was “the first record for this species in this area in several years.” (GOS, November 1947) So eight on 10 October the following year (Hartwell) at the pumping station (Durand Eastman?) was indeed noteworthy. (GNR) Another 13 on 25 September 1949 (Davis) were off Durand-Eastman. (GNR)By the early 1950s, sightings were definitely on the increase. When Leo Tanghe analyzed the tallies from 1,665 outings by GOS members from January 1951 through December 1954, he found this species reported 57 times within a 50-mile radius of Rochester, with the highest average counts – still only 5 to 7 birds – in early May.In 1952, “Double-crested Cormorants were numerous this fall and were reported on nine different days during the month” of October, the Goshawk reported, adding the sightings may have been related to 20 pairs nesting on Gull Island in Henderson Harbor during the summer. (GOS, November-December 1952) Thirty on 3 May 1953 (Listman) at Shore Acres was definitely noteworthy at that time. (GOS, May/August 1953)By 1961, it was seen every month along Lake Ontario and its adjoining bays and ponds, but still usually only one to two at a time, Edson noted. (WBR, 25 December 1961) It was listed among “rarities” in Kingbird Region 2 reports as recently as 1971. (KB 21:149) Bull (1974) regarded this as “uncommon and irregular” upstate. (Bull, p. 69) Thirty-nine on 24 September 1978 (mob) at Sodus Bay was considered a “very large number” for this region. (KB29: 36) Twenty-two on 15 October 1980 (Davids, Symonds) off Hamlin Beach SP was considered “exceptional.” (KB 31:26, LG, November 1980)Those tallies would not merit a mention today.By the 1980s, populations were exploding due to increased breeding on Lake Ontario. October 1981 marked the second straight year that they had maintained “continuous presence in good numbers since early spring,” Steve Taylor noted in his Little Gull field report for that month. (LG, November 1981)As early as 1983, John Brown wrote that this species’ increase was “one of the more phenomenal changes in the bird life around Lake Ontario . . . rarely seen here only a few years ago,” they had become “fairly common” migrants and summer visitors along the lakeshore. (BA, 20 October 1983) Various reasons have been suggested for the increase. For example, improved water quality led to a reduction in the DDT residue that had interfered with this species’ reproduction. Amendments to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1972 provided additional protection.By 1986, about 1,468 nests were tallied at Little Galloo Island in eastern Lake Ontario (Andrle, p. 30), and the colony was continuing to expand. By 1992, these birds were attempting to nest at Braddock Bay, without success (see Summer/breeding status below). “This met with mixed feelings,” Kevin Griffith noted. “Some observers, and fishermen, were elated that these fish-eating birds did not reproduce. Others look at them as evidence of revitalization of the Great Lakes and had hoped for a first Regional breeding record.” (KB 42: 237) A “real surprise” was the abrupt reduction in numbers seen at the bay in 1995, when “there were no nesting attempts . . . and very few individuals were present.” (KB 45: 288) With the increase in numbers has come renewed controversy over the extent to which cormorants deplete game fish, or the smaller fish that game fish feed upon. Even in the 1950s, fishermen were up in arms over this species, having “jumped to the conclusion that since the birds ate fish they ought to be killed,” John Brown reported in 1955. “Scientific analysis of the cormorants’ diet shows they are actually beneficial to game fish, eating trash species almost exclusively and contributing to the marine community by converting them into quickly available nitrogen and other elements.” (BA, 30 June 1955) “Compelling evidence that cormorants seriously damage fisheries is rare,” note Jeremy Hatch and D. V. Weseloh in their profile of this species for The Birds of North America series. However, although smallmouth bass constitute less than 2 percent of total prey taken by these birds, “this amount may represent 21-35 percent of all bass available in (the) Eastern Basin of Lake Ontario and would thus be a substantial impact on that fishery,” they note. (BNA 441:25)In 1999, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, citing just such evidence, embarked on a program of oiling cormorant eggs at Little Galloo Island in an attempt to reduce the nesting population there from 7,500 pairs to 1,500. By 2003, an estimated 4,200 nests remained.Indeed, a total of more than 10,000 pairs were confirmed breeding at 20 locations in the state that year, according to DEC. The total cormorant summer population in the state, including nonbreeders and newly fledged offspring, was estimated at about 43,000.In 2004, the state announced expanded control efforts — egg-oiling, hazing, nest destruction, habitat alteration and shooting or euthanizing as many as 800 birds a year –not only in eastern Lake Ontario, but at Buffalo Harbor/Niagara River, Lake Champlain and Oneida Lake, where declines in walleye and yellow perch had also been linked to cormorants. DEC stressed that the impact of cormorants was not limited to the fishing industry. The guano deposited by thousands of nesting cormorants in a dense colony will literally kill the trees and other vegetation, rendering the habitat unusable for other birds. “Cormorants threaten the existence of other colonial-nesting waterbirds, especially upstate, by physically taking over nest sites or by destroying woody vegetation that is essential for nesting,” according to DEC’s statement of findings. Common Tern, Black-crowned Night-heron, Great Egret and Great Blue Heron were among the affected species it mentioned.In 2007, Maureen Wren of the DEC press office in Albany, told this writer that latest figures showed the breeding population on Little Galloo Island had been reduced to an estimated 2,919 pairs in 2006. In 2002, local birders noted that the vast majority of summer sightings were adults, implying reduced breeding success. (KB 52:347) However, Wren acknowledged in 2007, the latest estimate of overall population was still 43,000 in New York state. So, the history of this species is still being written.StatusMonroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a regular, uncommon spring and fall transient; a regular uncommon summer visitant, and an irregular, uncommon winter visitant. Since then, its numbers have increased to the point that it is now a common, sometimes abundant transient and summer visitor. Less common but apparently increasing as a winter visitor.Livingston County, Fox (1998) considered this a sporadic rare winter visitant, a (presumably irregular) rare spring transient, an irregular rare summer visitant and an irregular uncommon (formerly very rare) fall transient.OccurrenceSpring: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of arrival dates from 13 March to 17 May, with a mid range, or “normal arrival time” of 14 April to 3 May. Subsequently, one on 6 March 2004 (mob) at Braddock Bay was an even earlier “first” of spring. (GNR)Most spring transients had departed by 5 June, with a late departure date of 15 June.Spring maxima: 900 on 26 April 2005 (Symonds) at Hamlin Beach SP. (LG, June 2005) 815 on 4 May 2004 (Symonds) at Hamlin Beach SP. (LG, July/August 2004) 300 on 8, 9 May 1990 (C. Cass) Braddock Bay. (GOS, July/August 1990) 440 on 10 May 1994 (Symonds) at Hamlin Beach SP. (LG, June/July 1994) 400 on 23 May 1991 (C. Cass) Braddock Bay. (GOS, July/August 1991)Summer /breeding status: Eighteen nests “at various levels of completion or integrity” were underway in one tree at the West Spit of Braddock Bay in 1992, but were abandoned. (KB 42: 237; GOS, July/August 1992) However, this species continues to be an abundant late summer visitor and migrant. Summer maxima: 300 on 31 July 2001 (Davids, Symonds) Hamlin Beach SP. (LG, September 2001) 460 on 13 August 2000 (Symonds) at Hamlin Beach SP. (LG, October 2000) 340 on 20 August 2004 (Symonds) at Hamlin Beach SP. (LG, October 2004) 385 on 24 August 1996 (K. and J. Fox) at Hamlin Beach SP. (LG, September 1996) 300+ on 25 August 1989 (R. and S. Spahn) Braddock Bay. (GOS, November 1989) 742 on 25 August 2002 (Symonds) at Hamlin Beach SP. (LG, October 2002)Fall: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of arrival dates from 1 September to 28 October, with a mid range, or “normal arrival time” of 20 September to 4 October. In most years had departed by 19 November, with a late departure date of 19 December. Large numbers can now be tallied flying along the lakeshore. Note maxima below at Hamlin Beach. During the Hamlin Beach Lakewatch project there, the average fall tally was 4,696, with about three-fourths flying west, usually in flocks high off the water. (Ewald and Sherony, pp. 32-33) A total of 44 on 17 September 1999 (Fox) at Conesus Lake was a good count inland. (LG November 1999)Fall maxima: 407 on 13 September 1998 (Symonds) Hamlin Beach (LG, November 1998) 419 on 10 October 2006 (Symonds, R. and S. Spahn, mob) at Hamlin Beach SP. (LG, December 2006) 911 on 11 October 1997 (K. Fox) at Hamlin Beach SP. (LG, December 1997) 3,985 on 16 October 1997 (Lanzone) at Hamlin Beach SP. (GOS, December 1997) 782 on 21 October 2002 (Symonds) Hamlin Beach SP. (LG, December 2002) 706 on 22 October 2000 (Symonds) Hamlin Beach SP. (GNR) 780 on 25 October 1997 at Hamlin Beach SP. (LG, December 1997) 934 on 26 October 1997 at Hamlin Beach SP. (LG, December 1997) 577 on 28 October 1999 at Hamlin Beach SP. (Ewald and Sherony, p. 33) 480 on 4 November 2003 (Symonds) Hamlin Beach SP. (GOS, January 2004)Winter: One was at Charlotte (Lloyd, Sunderlin) on 2 February 1986 (GOS, May 1986), and by 1987 this species was regarded as “almost annual” at this season, though in greatly reduced numbers from fall (KB 37;83). Recorded in our region on 15 of the 33 January Waterfowl Counts from 1975-2007, but annually since 1997. Maximum tally was 14 in 1993, then 20 in 2007.As the lake ice began to build up, and loons, gulls and scattered pockets of wintering ducks disappeared by February 1993, “surprisingly, 5 to 12 Double-crested Cormorants held on through the winter at the docks with bubblers at the end of Newport Road on Irondequoit Bay, and one stayed between Russell Station and Charlotte,” Bob Spahn noted. (GOS, April 1993) Winter maxima: 90 on 23 December 1998 (D. and D. Traver) at Webster. (GOS, February 1999) 17 on 1 January 2007 (D. Tetlow) Braddock Bay. (LG, March 2007) 12 on 24 January 1999 (D. Tetlow, Davids, Voss) Irondequoit Bay. (GOS, April 1999) Max. 12 in February 1993 at Irondequoit Bay. (GOS, April 1993) (formerly European Cormorant)Phalacrocorax carboRochester birders had a particularly good chance to study this relative newcomer when an immature showed up at Irondequoit Bay on 24 January 1998 and stayed a month. Two days after it was first sighted, one birder wrote in his diary, it was on a small outcropping in the northwest corner of the bay, sheltered by the bluffs along the shore. Best of all, it was next to two Double-crested Cormorants. The larger size of the Greater was immediately apparent, as well as the “real clincher . . . even at considerable range through shimmers, the contrast of extensive white on belly against the lighter brown on the neck really pops out. It also preens itself from time to time, showing a very thick neck . . .” BackgroundOur largest North American cormorant breeds from Maine north to western Greenland, and is almost entirely a marine bird of sea cliffs and rocky islands – unlike birds of this species in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia that primarily use freshwater lakes and rivers. It nests in colonies, often alongside the more common Double-crested Cormorant, but winters farther north than that species, and is now regular on the lower Hudson and Delaware rivers at that season. Great Cormorants increased their numbers and range on this continent, though less spectacularly than Double-crested Cormorants, through the early 1990s, but their populations may have stabilized since then, even as populations in western Europe and Hong Kong have increased rapidly. Irregularly reported west to Lake Ontario and West Virginia. About 8,500 pair reported nesting from Maine to western Greenland in the 1990s, most in Nova Scotia. (BNA 553: 1-3, 20)John Bull (1974) noted that this species had “increased greatly in recent years” in New York State, primarily along the coast. He knew of no inland records until an adult was shot 40 miles up the Hudson River in 1969. (Bull, p. 69) Gradually expanding its winter range up the Hudson River, which may account for increased sightings here. StatusThe Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a casual, very rare vagrant visitant. At that time there were only two records. Since 1995 recorded almost annually.Occurrence 1. An adult April 14, 1980 (R. Spahn) on Lake Ontario off Oklahoma Beach, with a Double-crested Cormorant present for direct comparison. Accepted by NYSARC. (KB31: 206) 2. One immature 9 January 1983 (Davids, Perrigo) “flew over the pier” at Charlotte. (KB 33:118) 3. One subadult 24 November 1985 (Bouton, C. Cass) at Braddock Bay. (KB 36:21) Not accepted by NYSARC. (KB 38: 233) 4. One December 1985 and February 1986 at Charlotte and Irondequoit Bay, possibly the same as 3) above. (KB 36:91) Accepted by NYSARC. (KB 38:233) 5. One 5 September 1995 (Ewald, Bounds) off Braddock Bay. (KB 46:43) Accepted by NYSARC. (KB 48: 303) 6. One subadult 5-7 November 1997 (Ewald, Symonds, Lanzone) Hamlin Beach SP. (KB 48:48) Accepted by NYSARC. (KB 50:19) 7. One to two immatures 24 January -17 March 1998 (Ewald, mob) Irondequoit Bay/Charlotte/Round Pond outlet. (KB 48:143; LG April, May 1998) Accepted by NYSARC. (KB 51: 481) “The species is now annual but rare along the shore of Lake Ontario . . . Given this steady change in status, NYSARC no longer requires reports of Great Cormorant from upstate New York . . .” the committee wrote. 8. One adult 8 February 1998 (Symonds) Hamlin Beach SP. (KB 48:143) 9. One second-year bird 31 August 1999 (D. Tetlow) over the lake near Cowsucker Creek, Hamlin “shortly after two days of strong northeast winds.” (KB 49:332, LG October 1999) 10. One immature 7 October 1999 (Ewald) Hamlin Beach SP. (KB 50:52) 11. One adult 19 October 1999 (Ewald) Hamlin Beach SP. (KB 50:52) 12. One 19 October 2001 (D. Tetlow) Greece. (KB 52:59) 13. One 30 May 2003 (Symonds) Hamlin Beach SP. (KB 53:233) 14. Four adults 18 April 2004 (R. and S. Spahn) “moving along the Hamlin shoreline” at Troutburg. (KB 54: 227, 230) 15. One immature 17 January 2005 (D. Tetlow) Irondequoit Bay. (KB 55: 171) 16. One immature 4 August 2005 (D. Tetlow) Braddock Bay. (KB 55: 362) 17. Two adults on 8 May 2007 (D. Tetlow) Braddock Bay. (LG, July/August 2007)