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Man do I hate these birds!


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They are terrorizing Nipissing too. Never seen them on the lake before 15 years ago. Even my father who is 75 never seen them on the lake as a child. Why are they there now? Good question. They are slowly taking over the islands known as Gull Islands.

Wonder what ever happened to the die off of them 3 years ago on the Manitou Island. They said at the time it was disease but why were the nearby islands not affected? I suspect they were poisoned. They should do it to some more areas.

 

Strange they dont hang around my place too much ;) .

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Man do i hate cormorants.. my grandparents live on canal lake and i always see them there, always chomping down on fish. The most i have seen at once was on lake simcoe just off the hawkestone dock. I took a drive down and seen a big black blob out a couple hundred yards. I grabbed my binoculars and guess what CORMORANTS. There had to be over a thousand of them diving and picking off a school of minnows. With the amount of food they eat in a day a thousand of them can clean up a school of minnows pretty quick.

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We have one lone bird that showed up in Temagami August of '06. Unfortunately when I returned with the "solution" it was gone. Wanted to get it before it brought back friends, as one bird leaving what looks like someone dumped a 5 gallon pail of white paint on your dock (after a 2 minute sit) is enough. Saw one again this year alone. Hope it stays alone... but I now bring the "solution" with me in May so I'm prepared if I get the chance.

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I hate them too, but be careful if you are planning on taking matters into your own hands as killing them is a Federal offence.

 

Why are some species of migratory birds such as pelicans, cormorants, hawks and owls, protected under provincial and territorial legislation rather than under the Migratory Birds Convention Act ( M.B.C.A. )?

 

Answer:

In 1916, when the International Convention was signed, it enabled legislation to be enacted to protect migrating birds which were considered either useful or harmless to humans. At the time of the signing, there were several species of migrating birds which were excluded from protection under the M.B.C.A. due to their "undesirability" to humans. Pelicans, cormorants, hawks and owls, to name a few, were once considered pests and subsequently left unprotected. These birds have since been recognized for their importance to both humans and the environment and have therefore become protected under provincial and territorial legislation.

 

I'd say it is time for our government to re-visit this outdated legislation...

 

Tony

Edited by tonyb
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Yep not a good thing HH

 

Terry you heard right about their daily intake.

 

I've seen first hand what kind of destruction these birds can do. On two different islands on Lake Erie they have completely killed the vegetation where they congregate. Another place I fish, Rice Lake is starting to get a real good population of them too and they have completely killed the trees on Prison Island and the last time I was there they had but a pretty good dent in the trees on the southeast side on Potdash Island. I guess my point is not only are they harmful to the fishery they raise havoc with the vegetation in areas.

 

Wayne I hope your successful in your effort to control

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They are all over Lake of The Woods too and they're making one hell of a mess. Use to see a lot of Loons with babies but not so much maybe see one a season with young in our area of the lake. The filth birds like to hang with the pellicans(blending in isn't working for them), why they want to do another study on them is beyond me. They already know how they impact the fish and environment. We get groups on the 100's, 300's on the lake and will run into several groups in one day on a trip from the island to town or the marina, driving through the centre of them and still...no hits. They only seem to group in large numbers at certain times of the year but that doesnt' mean all those birds still aren't out there somewhere on the lake.

 

Not a great pic but they can't hide, and what's the impact from pellicans, we have some but nothing like the cormorants.

 

DSCF1985.jpg

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Quinte was really getting bad with them a few years ago and a show I saw on TV estimated there were approximately 15,000 birds in the Bay area, each eating 2 pounds of fish per day.

 

This isn't a good picture, but I took it several years ago in an area we fish close to the Glenora Ferry and you can see some birds, but there was probably at least 100 of them sitting in the trees. Those trees were totally void of leaves and were covered in excrement, plus the ground below actually looked like it was covered in snow aand the stench was enough to make you sick. It actually smells like rotting fish.

 

Anyways, we went back the year after the big cull and there weren't nearly as many birds around, but the strangest thing was the condition of those trees. They were in full bloom and looked totally healthy, whereas the year before they appeared to be dead along with all other vegetation in the area.

 

I don't know what the answer is, but it seemed once the birds stopped crapping all over them and left, the trees became healthy again and appear to be thriving :dunno:

 

Feb0801-1.jpg

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