Both Bryan and I have from time to time used our blogs to alert the nation to the inexorable advance of the Big Birds. Well, they haven't gone away, you know... Last week I was somewhat taken aback to see, perched incongruously at the top of a tree in a local park, a pair of cormorants. This morning, I spotted another one sitting on the roof of an office block nearby. Clearly the cormorants are closing in - and presumably they have, like the ubiquitous herring gulls, given up fishing, headed inland and taken to living off the vast quantities of scavengable refuse we humans throw about everywhere. We have only ourselves to blame...
Has someone been secretly stocking Carshslton ponds with herring Nige ?
ReplyDeleteDon't tell Brussels, quota's will be imposed.
The meres of north Shropshire certainly used to host the largest inland cormorant roost in the UK thought I don't know what they would have been eating - small, muddy fish of some kind I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI had a delightful encounter with very small birds this morning. Two bushes side by side emitting squeaks caught my eye - one containing goldcrests and the other long-tailed tits. Lovely.
Ah I envy you that encounter Sophie - I've yet to see my first goldcrest this year. Lots of goldfinches to keep my spirits up though.
ReplyDeleteI think I'd take that as a very dodgy omen and throw salt over my shoulder or something. The Surrey cormorant problem is a most vexing question for our times.
ReplyDeleteMaybe suburbia is wildlife's last refuge. The natives are generally friendly. Out in the countryside you'll get shot, hunted or starved. Move into those leafy 'burbs, though, and it's all there for the taking.
Why not see them in a positive way? The cormorants are humanity's clean-up crew, removing garbage. It seems ecologically sound to me.
ReplyDelete