If you are the owner of the pier, please don’t panic and take action! Scientists have found that these birds don’t really eat all that much gamefish, and that they recovered from near-extinction (from pesticides like DDT) relatively recently (in the 1950s). This is a similar success story to that of more popular birds like the bald eagle, osprey, and peregrine falcon, and yet, most fishermen don’t appreciate their comeback, Ospreys really do eat popular gamefish (like speckled trout and redfish) as almost all of their diet, and yet, fishermen don’t kill them. So why kill cormorants? Maybe it’s that, to most eyes, they don’t look anywhere as graceful or cool as birds of prey. But the Fish and Wildlife Service, on February, proposed to cull cormorants, and I don’t support this. https://www.audubon.org/news/without-solid-science-government-plans-expand-cormorant-killing-efforts
At Little River Event Center. Manicured landscape.
Observed the flora/fauna along Mustang Creek as part of the ECRMN Winter bioBlitz
Day Two of the El Camino Real TMN Winter Seasonal BioBlitz.
I must remind myself to look at the "everyday" plants when participating in a bioblitz.
Day Two of the El Camino Real TMN Winter Seasonal BioBlitz.
Winter and early spring time plant.
Day Two of the El Camino Real TMN Winter Seasonal BioBlitz.
A tangle on the grapevines. Last photo shows new growth.
Day Two of the El Camino Real TMN Winter Seasonal BioBlitz.
In my "drive" growing in compacted soil.
Observed flora/fauna along Mustang Creek as part of the ECRMN Winter bioBlitz.
Day One of the El Camino Real TMN Winter Seasonal BioBlitz.
Substrate: dead oak twig
Observed the flora/fauna along Mustang Creek as part of the ECRMN Winter bioBlitz.
Day One of the El Camino Real TMN Winter Seasonal BioBlitz.
At the bird seed feeder outside my kitchen window.
Day One of the El Camino Real TMN Winter Seasonal BioBlitz.
Noticed more hills of these today than I saw all last year.
Day One of the El Camino Real TMN Winter Seasonal BioBlitz.
On the Osage Orange tree in the donkey pen.
Day One of the El Camino Real TMN Winter Seasonal BioBlitz.
Near the bird seed feeder outside my kitchen window.
Day One of the El Camino Real TMN Winter Seasonal BioBlitz.
At the bird seed feeder outside my kitchen window.
Day One of the El Camino Real TMN Winter Seasonal BioBlitz.
The common stuff.
Day One of the El Camino Real TMN Winter Seasonal BioBlitz.
Several scattered specimens that have gained some size.
Day One of the El Camino Real TMN Winter Seasonal BioBlitz.
In my "yard".