Just a bird being a bird!

  While double-crested cormorants are around the Bayou all year long, when the weather turns cooler, we are inundated with those migrating southward.  The local fishermen are not overly happy to see the thousands of fish-eating birds gather in the shallows of the Bay as they look at the birds as competition.  The birds do eat a lot of fish but, in all fairness, they eat small fish.  They do not grab large fish as they swallow their dinner whole.  A large fish would choke the poor bird.  Fishermen do not have worries about a group of cormorants depleting their catch.  Pop always said if you are catching fish small enough to feed a bird, then you "ain't much a fisherman".  I agree. 

  A lot of pier owners do not care for the birds, either.  Cormorants are not like ducks that can stay in the water for a long time.  Cormorants' feathers become waterlogged and the birds need to dry out.  They seek pier posts so they can spread their wings and dry without worry of becoming supper for some predator.  The only downside to this according to the pier owners is that the birds poop a lot!  Most folks find messy piers disgusting and will try to shoo the birds away.  I figure it like this.  A good rain will wash the pier so let the birds borrow the posts.  It is part of nature and I am sure not going to interfere!  

  My whole point is to let the critters be just that...critters.  They do eat fish.  They do use the pier posts as drying stations.  They do poop.  To be brutally honest here, I know a lot of people who have less respect for Mother Nature than these birds do.  At least, bird poop is biodegradable.  The beer cans, bottles and other trash are not.  Every day, I have to scoop dozens of these items from the marsh and I find THAT disgusting.  No amount of rain is going to clean up that mess. This all falls back to why I have more critter friends than people friends.  Carry on, birds, carry on.  You are welcome to use my pier posts as your drying station.