CORMORANTs (1 Viewer)

Is there any evidence that Cormorant 'droppings' can kill off waterside vegetation (freshwater), in the same way that they cause die back/ death in roost trees ?

This is not an anti-Cormrant thread, but is posted in responce to a worrying trend deminished vegetation at Black Necked Grebe nesting location...

Steve.

Possibly yes, though I'd suspect trampling is more likely to be the cause - I've even seen banksides kept to bare trampled earth by loafing Mallards

Steve,

I realise that it's an American site but you may find paragraph 3 of interest

http://wildlifedamagegroup.unl.edu/documents/position/cormorant.htm

Regards,

Anthony

StevieEvans said:

Is there any evidence that Cormorant 'droppings' can kill off waterside vegetation (freshwater), in the same way that they cause die back/ death in roost trees ?

This is not an anti-Cormrant thread, but is posted in responce to a worrying trend deminished vegetation at Black Necked Grebe nesting location...

Steve.

Click to expand...

Hi Steve,

I am not sure about bankside vegetation but the roosting trees are usually a mess although it may be more of a chicken and egg situation. Canada geese are probably much more damaging to water side habitats whereas cormorants tend to have regular perches. I have not much experience with double crested cormorants (other than the Cleveland bird back in the late 80s) but Anthony's reference is interesting because I wondering if there is a significant difference in behaviour between the species. The Cleveland bird made a daily flight to roost away from the place where it was seen during the day and if I remember rightly, the roost was not on a dead tree but on water. This could be an interesting discussion but can I echo Steve's thoughts here and ask that we do not deflect discussion away from the subject because we already threads covering the controversial aspects?

Ian

Worth remembering that denuded banks can be a good thing - eg for solitary wasps, passage waders, Black-tailed Skimmers, specialist flowering plants.

Not denying that there's a problem for Steve's grebes though.