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cormorant


danbo

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Countryman’s Cooking, by W.M.W Fowler circa 1965.

 

Cormorant Recipe

 

Having shot your cormorant, hold it well away from you as you carry it home; these birds are exceedingly verminous and the lice are said to be not entirely host-specific. Hang up by the feet with a piece of wire, soak in petrol and set on fire. This treatment both removes most of the feathers and kills the lice.

 

When the smoke has cleared away, take the cormorant down and cut off the beak. Send this to the local Conservancy Board who, if you are in the right area, will give you 3/6d or sometimes 5/- for it. Bury the carcase, preferably in a light sandy soil, and leave it there for a fortnight. This is said to improve the flavour by removing, in part at least, the taste of rotting fish.

 

Dig up and skin and draw the bird. Place in a strong salt and water solution and soak for 48 hours. Remove, dry, stuff with whole, unpeeled onions: the onion skins are supposed to bleach the meat to a small extent, so that it is very dark brown instead of being entirely black.

 

Simmer gently in seawater, to which two tablespoons of chloride of lime have been added, for six hours. This has a further tenderising effect. Take out of the water and allow to dry, meanwhile mixing up a stiff paste of methylated spirit and curry powder. Spread this mixture liberally over the breast of the bird.

 

Finally roast in a very hot oven for three hours. The result is unbelievable. Throw it away. Not even a starving vulture would eat it.

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With the amount of Comorant I see in high density areas such has Hamilton Harbor and etc, it seems like the their survival is here to stay in Canada. They are simply too effective to survive the now warmer climate. I feel like there's nothing we can do, except shoot'em down.

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not the most well-read on this topic , but just some of the numbers i've seen on what these things consume in gamefish is unbelieveable. why this intolerable situation continues is painfuuly beyond my comprehension.

how long do we need to study this plague before someone sees this disease is killing our sportfishery???

pass the shotgun ma,, there's another one o' them damn flyin' shop vac's.

Edited by waterwolf
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i seen these buzzards at one or 2 lakes around here. and i heard and seen that they are great fishermen. and i was doing some reading on them and they native to the great lakes and not some unnatural bird taking over our lakes. they say in the 30s-50s they were almost killed off then by the 80's into the 90's the populations just exploded larger then they originally were and ppl today are unaware they are native to this area. i say we shouldnt completely destory them but cut/control their numbers so theres some kind of balance.

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i seen these buzzards at one or 2 lakes around here.

 

A number of years ago, 10 to 15?, can't say exactly anymore-my memory doesn't allow me :rolleyes: , I also seen one or two. Then the next year a dozen or more. Now they have completely taken over several islands on Nipissing devastating any plant life that was on them.

I have talked to a few old timers (ok older than me) folks and no one can ever recall seeing cormorants on Nipissing .

Cull is right. No argument from me.

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As Bernie says.... yes they are Native... but not on the Northern lakes. Ruger semi-auto 22 and a good scope keeps the Lake T birds in check ! lol

3 guys in a boat all with semi or pump shotgun 12 guages with 3 1/2 " 00buck shot from 40 yards is good too 9 shots can take down anywhere from 10-30 in a crowded tree so i've been told!

Edited by BassAsin
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great recipe wayne ,, is right . a starving vulture might yak at the thought but i bet a cormorant would at least consider the offer.

like most ,,my opinion is based primarily on personal observation. any species that can do so much damage to so many different areas of an eco system is definitely in need of a check system. it attacks foremost the fishery. the shoreline aquatic and terra-based vegetation . even large trees are dying off. what other wildlife suffers while this thing flurishes??

sorry for the rant but ,,that pic of a pike being devoured struck a nerve.

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i seen these buzzards at one or 2 lakes around here. and i heard and seen that they are great fishermen. and i was doing some reading on them and they native to the great lakes and not some unnatural bird taking over our lakes. they say in the 30s-50s they were almost killed off then by the 80's into the 90's the populations just exploded larger then they originally were and ppl today are unaware they are native to this area. i say we shouldnt completely destory them but cut/control their numbers so theres some kind of balance.

There is no historical record of cormorrants being native to the great lakes. They may have migrated up the Mississippi. They are recent( the last hundred years) arrivals.

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more people need to feel this way on a lake i fish near espanola we saw nearly 200 in 3 dead elm trees on a lake with only 15 km of shoreline not a huge lake by any means!!!! and as for limits that depends on how many shells u fell like shootin! what kind of remmy? 870 wingmaster?

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Darn scary when you see 400 of 'em together just east of the Credit River mouth. How many rainbows & smallmouth get gobbled?

 

Dan

This summer I watched a flock of them flying across the Credit River mouth for 10 minutes straight. From the first to the last one, had to be more than 400 of them.

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