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Cormorant Colony at Tommy Thompson Park: September 2020

I know of a few places where a strong aroma alerts you to it long before you arrive.

One I discovered during my time as a cruise ship naturalist in the Great Lakes. Mackinac Island in Michigan has no automobiles so horses are everywhere.

Penguin colonies in Antarctica and South Georgia also have a strong smell.

I thought of this today as I entered the breeding colony at Tommy Thompson Park.

Cormorants, gulls and night herons all breed here. As it is September all but a few chicks are out of their nests.

Cormorant colony
100’s of cormorants
1000’s of cormorants
feeding by regurgitation

All birds feed their chicks by regurgitation.

parent and chick Double-crested Cormorant with other adult
parent and chick Double-crested Cormorants
parent and chick Double-crested Cormorants
Double-crested Cormorants
Double-crested Cormorants
Double-crested Cormorants
Double-crested Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorants
Double-crested Cormorants
Double-crested Cormorants
Double-crested Cormorants and gulls
Double-crested Cormorant

Cormorants in Antarctica are black and white and are called Blue-eyed Shags.

Blue-eyed Shag
Blue-eyed Shags at the nest
Double-crested Cormorants
Double-crested Cormorants
Double-crested Cormorants
Double-crested Cormorant
Black-crowned Night Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
cormorant colony

NATURE POETRY

The woods grew dark, as though they knew no noon;
The thunder growled about the high brown hills,
And the thin, wasted, shining summer rills
Grew joyful with the coming of the rain,
And doubtfully was shifting every vane.           – William Morris (1834—96) 

Miles Hearn

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