Shooting practice (Phalacrocorax aristotelis)

Love these birds and their green eyes. ....Great shot thanks for sharing gmax!

Nice one Gmax, some fishermen here would love to use these birds as 'shooting practise'. How dare these birds eat their fish! Nice shot and know what you mean about just water shots. Cheers

Gmax-lovely bird and a real good shot-as for practice you should see my shots-most shots are blank-bird missing(ah).Thanks for sharing.:tongue:

Hi Max - I've got many shots of cormorant's backsides because of their habit of diving when you least expect it..!



Nigel, without getting into the thing too deeply, pretty much every fish in fresh water in England is "livestock" in legal terms: they're somebody's property, and it's quite likely they will have been stocked at significant expense, by anglers.

Cormorant predation can be a huge problem.

When I was still an active angler, my club lost something like 30,000 worth of fish from one water alone in just three years. We weren't a rich club, we were normal working men and women tying to make the most of the practically non-existent opportunities to get out into "countryside" in my part of the world.

We're entitled to protect our property, just as a farmer can shoot a dog that's attacking his sheep, or a gamekeeper can deal with a fox eating his pheasants.

Most informed anglers know that shooting is pointless, and it rarely if ever happens - but exceptionally it's a "last resort" should none of the many other strategies available for managing cormorant predation don't work.

Sorry to hijack this, Max.

Not a problem, Keith, your point is well taken .. cormorants and shags are a real problem even here ... I don't know how many kgs of fish they can eat per day!
In any case, from my photographer's point of view, it's fine having them around

That's just it Keith "pretty much every fish in fresh water in England is 'livestock' they're somebody's property" (how can we really own the countryside, and maybe that's the attitude that has got the world in it's dismal state?) we leave no room for Nature to flourish except in reserves etc. It amazes me how we encourage some and destroy others if that species will dare to take advantage of mans stocks of fish etc.

Pehaps we should find better ways to co-exist. If i was a fisherman then i'm sure I would understand the problem better, but i take photos of birds and that's where my passion is.

Where will the cull theroy end? Kingfishers, Seals, Terns, Gulls or anything else that has evolved to exist on fish!!!!

Cheers, Sorry to hijack this also Max.

stunning capture max,wonderful pic,love the reflection,well done.

Interesting and "fishy" debate caused by this image - the reflection of both bird and human mind! :smile: As for the image, I am impressed you get such sharpness using manual focus, as you must with the converter!

The calm water makes this a superb picture, well done. You will have to take more shots --sic !!

Nice picture, I agree these birds should be protected.