Recently there have been some very large flocks of Brandt's Cormorants feeding off of Bodega Head. This photo is from 9 September 2018.
And just for fun, here's a recent picture of three different species of cormorants:
Brandt's Cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus) on the left, Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) in the center, and Pelagic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pelagicus) on the right. Photographed on 25 August 2018.
ADDENDUM (11 September 2018): Someone noticed that the cormorants didn't appear to be diving in the group photo above. I was curious about that, too! Eventually I did see some of the birds diving. It was subtle and hard to capture in a photo, but here's an example with two birds diving:
2 comments:
No apparent diving going on in the photo but are they gathered for anchovies? or smelt?
Good eyes! I was curious about that, too. At first I didn't see any diving activity and it made me wonder if the cormorants could have been gathered for a different reason (getting out of the wind?). But eventually I did see some of the birds diving, especially along the leading edges of the flock (see new photo added to the post.) I think there probably were some small bait fish around, but I didn't see a fish, so I'm not sure what kind.
Thanks for the observation and question!
:) Jackie
Post a Comment