Deadly Poop!

  Early this morning, the hike to the pier was not the most comfortable.  The storm from overnight was lingering into the morning so a drizzly rain made the hike be shortened.  While on the pier, however, I did have the opportunity to photograph a pair of cormorants as they sat on the pier posts of my brother's pier.  These birds have to do a good bit of "drying out" as their feathers are not "water-proof" like most waterfowl.  The cormorants' feathers become waterlogged making it difficult to swim and to take flight from the water.  This morning's drying session was rather a moot effort as the rain had to be saturating the feathers.  

  As often as I have photographed these birds, I actually never knew one point.  While way up north on the river tug, Mark saw numerous nests in the trees on an island in the river.  One of his coworkers told him that they were cormorant nests.  The man went on to explain a bit about the birds and their use of the trees.  According to him, the birds nest in huge colonies and the excrement from the birds can literally kill any plant life beneath their nesting sites.  This included the very trees that the birds used as sites for their nests.  The man said that whole islands were devoid of trees simply because of the birds pooping.  

  As I stated, I had never known this fact so a bit of research was in order.  Come to find out, the story is true.  The bird poop does kill the vegetation (even trees) when a colony of several hundred cormorants repeatedly use the same nesting site.  This has even caused an uproar among people with different mindsets....those who wish to protect the trees and those who wish to protect the birds.  Things have even gone so far as to have people shoot hundreds of the birds only to find themselves being arrested.  Those shooting the birds were breaking the law since they shot migratory birds.  All migratory birds are protected by federal law.  Over the years, the illegal killing of cormorants has escalated to the point that thousands upon thousands of the birds are shot. Something had to be done as it was getting out of hand.  Laws were passed to allow the killing of a certain number of birds each year if done correctly with permits.  In some states, even the eggs are "oiled" to prevent hatching.  All in all, about 40,000 adult birds are killed each year (that number is the reported kills) but this does not include the killing of chicks.  This has some folks livid.  "How can anyone condone the killing of 40,000 birds each year??"  Well, when it comes to cormorants, that is about 2% of the population in the United States so it is an easy point to argue.  Still, even with these "kills", the bird population is burgeoning.

  I did find it interesting that the bird poop kills plants so I checked a bit further and it seems that the poop is high in nitrogen and phosphorous.  When used in small amounts, these are nutrients that help plants grow but when thousands of birds roost in a small area, the poop piles up several feet deep.  That extreme amount does the damage.  (After having to clean the chicken houses back on the farm, trust me when I say it does not take long for poop to pile up.)  To take this a bit further, being as the birds nest near water, those "nutrients" find their way into the waterways.  This is being declared as having a adverse effect to everything!  According to some studies, the excess of nitrogen causes extreme algae bloom which can be highly dangerous.  The birds are not only killing plants, they are polluting the water!  And let us not forgo the argument that as the cormorants are taking over prime nesting sites, other birds and wildlife are either dying out or having to move elsewhere.

  My stance on this whole spat?  It is hard to say.  Perhaps if the cormorants were killing every bit of plant-life (and, therefore, all the critter life) in the back of the Bayou, I would find it hard to not condone the limiting efforts.  As it is, we are in the "non-breeding" zone of the birds so the problem has not hit home.  While I usually live by the mantra of live and let live, there has to be a solution that would please everybody (cormorants included) and it definitely seems that people are attempting to find the answer.  This does make me appreciate the fact that these birds are migratory!