Although double-crested cormorants have become very common in Ohio, to the point of being a problem in places, other species of cormorants are all but unheard of in the Buckeye State. A neotropic cormorant showed up briefly several years ago at Sandusky, although it was gone by the time I joined the search. However, the idea of the salt-water great cormorant showing up was considered unlikely. But it did happen, with lots of people getting to see the bird as it perched with double-crested cormorants in Cleveland. Most sightings have been from Wendy Park, but it evidently also heads up the Cuyahoga River to roost at night.
I did some reading about cormorants and learned that the great cormorant is found over large portions of the world, from the Arctic to the tropics. It is found in Australia and New Zealand, southern and northern Africa, much of Europe, parts of Asia, and the northeast coast of the United States. In some places great cormorants are found inland on fresh water, but our subspecies is normally found only in salt water. Nesting is in the northeast but during the winter the birds may move south to the Carolinas or sometimes even to northern Florida. They may also be found along the St. Lawrence but not as far as Lake Erie. This particular bird has changed that.
I hope you had fun with the photo quiz bird last week. This was a bird that we watched several times over two days in extreme northeastern Florida, on Amelia Island. There is a half-mile-long pier and jetty that attracts a lot of birds. This particular loon (I assume most of you narrowed it down to the loon family) was behaving quite strangely. Instead of diving, which is what we expect of feeding loons, the bird swam slowly beside the pier, with its head stretched out under the water. It did this for at least 200 yards, until it came to the shore. We saw this behavior close at hand for two days running. Evidently it was finding food using this behavior instead of diving.
If you read my column in early February, the answer to the quiz was there for you to see. Yes, it was a red-throated loon. Looking on the range maps, it appears that wintering loons of this species normally are found south along the coast to Georgia, or just into Florida, as was the case here.
You have only seen the one photo, but we were able to watch the bird in action very close to us. However, in the photo you can see the white speckling on the back and the white reaching up on the side of the face to the eye and above. Also, the loon was definitely smaller than a common loon. We were fortunate that both species of loons were active along the coast while we were on Amelia Island, which was nice for comparisons.
Switching gears, Ive joined three other northern Indiana birders on a three-month spring contest. Two of the four must see each bird and the goal is to see as many species as possible in the seven-county Michiana Meadowlark area (patterned after the Bobolink Area in Holmes, Wayne and surrounding counties).
We started off with a visit to Potato Creek State Park where we found a great horned owl on a nest, an early osprey at a nest on March 7, and a good assortment of ducks. Another trip took us east to the Pigeon River Wildlife Area where we saw three long-eared owls but missed the northern shrike that has been there off and on. The highlight of that trip was finally seeing an adult golden eagle, a bird that has been seen by many birders this winter. And finally, Goshen has its first active bald eagle nest. It is located on a small island in the lake which we can see from our house. Nice!
Good birding!
Bruce Glick can be contacted at birderbruce@yahoo.com or 330-317-7798.
