When the guano droppings from the Double-Crested Cormorants nesting on electric towers began to cause problems for the local utility in the South Bay region of San Francisco Bay, it had to take action to repair the damage. Unfortunately it had to remove some of the nests and eggs to prevent further damage to the electrical infrastructure.
IBRRC was called in to help take care of the birds and is now incubating eggs and rearing some of the cormorant chicks that came from these 5 or 6 towers. So far 30 have hatched.
Plans are now in place to prevent the birds from nesting on the towers in the future so this will not occur again.
In the mean time we are posting pictures of the birds as they grow from egg to adulthood and are released. This is the second time we have raised and rehabilitated baby cormorants from eggs. Last year we raised a small batch of cormorants and had about a 60% release rate of wild, healthy juvenile cormorants.
Follow their growth and rehabilitation with us. See the original posting with more photos on our Facebook site
Why would you want to save these birds? They are devastating our fishing lakes in Michigan!!!
Double Crested Cormorants on the west coast are not violating or devastating fish populations in California. We therefore do not think it is appropriate or responsible to ignore the care of any bird in need due to a political issue in another region. The problem in Michigan is complex and it mostly has to do with poor management of the fish stocks, aquaculture and other issues that are too varied to go into here and be assured that the problem was not created the birds but rather was created by humans.
At IBRRC we have experienced that every species of bird that we care for has someone that does not want it around or thinks that it should be killed or at least should not be rehabilitated. Even the most innocent and seemly harmless of birds such as coots, Canada Geese, Great Blue Herons etc. We do not discriminate against any wild bird species as we know that they all have a place and a purpose in the natural environment. We care for common bird species and endangered birds also and they all get equal care.
The cormorants that we raised this year were from nests that had to be taken down in the South Bay area of SF Bay because of damage to the power lines. PG&E was required to provide care for these birds as they are protected under the migratory bird act. We just did the work of raising them for PG&E. 15 survived to release.
Thanks for writing.
Jay Holcomb
IBRRC-Executive Director