I do not want to put a big ol’ sour rant before Brad’s post, so I am just going to quickly mention that I am having boatloads of WordPress issues as of late. Not so much on the posting side, rather on the commenting side – particularly commenting on other people’s posts. It’s a crap shoot if it works and for the life of me I am unable to figure it out. This is especially infuriating for a career IT person who earned his early retirement exorcising ghosts in the machine. I’ll update later, but for now, accept my apologies if it appears like I have been ignoring your posts. Where my eyes happen to be blood red, today’s feature has a much more calming and pleasing color. Enjoy another of Brad’s adventures while I round up a Goat for some yoga therapy.
Take it away Brad…
I know, I know. I can hear it now. Not another white wading shorebird. OK. It’s not. I don’t think I’ve ever seen today’s featured feathered friend wading. Not that they don’t wade in very shallow water from time to time. It’s just . . . I’ve never seen them wading. Or swimming. Or diving. Actually, I’ve never seen them doing much of anything except watching the world go by (see Notes). Plenty of sites show them to be very active. I usually see them sitting on a post; or on a rock in the water somewhere. Or at their most vigorous, casually paddling around on the edge of the Mississippi River. In fitting with the theme of recently published stories, our guest today is not a wading shorebird. Nor is it white. It is nearly black, except for piercing emerald green eyes.
Have you guessed our featured feathered friend today?
Hit the jump to reveal the latest “emerald” gem from South Carolina.
It’s the Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), or DCC for short. At a distance this bird looks completely black. But when you get up close, you can see what looks like intricate patterns on its wings. The wing feathers are slightly lighter in color with a very dark outline, almost like the body of an American Black Duck. Some say the DCC has emerald eyes; others say it’s blue-teal. Either way, with the light just right their eyes are a very intense greenish, emerald-y, blue-teal color. The ID photo on All About Birds could have been the same cormorant we saw sitting on the same post.
The first snaps of the DCC were taken (where else?) at Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina. As we were scurrying around taking photos of a Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Herons, and various mergansers, this Double-crested Cormorant was sitting on this post about halfway across the causeway. He (or actually it could have been a she) was squawking at anyone who would listen. Jan was capturing it from one side while I took photos from the other. Most of the people on the causeway were walking right by this bird. I have to admit that I ignored it for a while until it started making noise; a very loud attention-grabbing kind of noise. We were able to walk within 10 feet of this bird all afternoon, and it didn’t seem to care in the slightest.
Where’s the double-crest you say? The crest is normally only visible on breeding adults. Either this one was not breeding, or wasn’t quite an adult, or both. Both male and female adults are mostly black, while juveniles are light brown. All have intense green eyes.
Double-crested Cormorants nest in colonies, often on smaller bodies of water. They can fly up to 40 miles each day to feeding areas. No wonder I have seen DCCs on both salt and fresh water; they don’t seem to be too picky. The All About Birds website shows the Lower 48 and the coast of Alaska as their primary range, with small incursions all around the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, and central and coastal Canada.
Cormorants eat mostly fish, with an occasional insect, crustacean, or small amphibian thrown in for variety. The hook on the end of their bills helps snag their dinner above or below the water. Phew! Once again, photographers are not listed on their preferred menu. With their webbed feet, DCCs are good swimmers, often chasing prey 25 feet or more below the water’s surface. I can’t do that without my ears popping. They can also hold their breath for about two minutes, something else I can’t do.
DCCs don’t have the same oil producing glands other diving birds have. That means their feathers can get water logged, which does help with diving. However, that also means they have to dry out more often. Which is why you will probably see a DCC holding their wings outstretched in the sun to dry.
A pair of adult DCCs can raise 1-7 eggs, once or twice per breeding season. Both help build the nest, either on the ground or in a tree, again, they aren’t too picky. They have been known to steal nesting material from unguarded nests (we’ve seen this behavior). Incubation takes almost four weeks. Chicks hang around for three to four more weeks before striking out on their own. Young cormorants will leave their nests to “play” with other youngsters. However, they know which side their bread is buttered on and return to their own nest when it’s feeding time. With a proper food supply nearby, a DCC can easily live past 20 years in the wild. As always, our goal is to capture birds in their natural environments doing what birds do naturally. Jan was able to capture some very natural behavior. Remember when I said this DCC was making lots of noise earlier?
Now I know what it was complaining about all afternoon.
Thank you for reading. If you want to see more Double-crested Cormorant photos from our South Carolina winter escape, please visit here.
Credits:
Thanks again to Jan and Allyson for proofreading and editing. Thanks to Jan for some of the photos in this article.
Notes:
On a separate trip to Acadia National Park, we spotted this Double-crested Cormorant a few miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. Jan and I were on the return leg of a Puffin Cruise when the boat made a scheduled stop at Egg Island. This is the only time I have actually seen a DCC doing anything besides sitting on a post or floating on the current. It was flying low, only a few feet above the waves, under the fog, near the edge of the island.
There was a break in the fog. I spotted this dark shape flying out of the fog, so I took a few photos between rolls of the boat. Thirty seconds later, fog engulfed the boat again and the island nearly disappeared. The fog was just as thick here as it was where we “saw” the Puffins. I was able to review the photos when we made it back to land, and saw that it was a Double-crested Cormorant. We didn’t see it diving for food, probably because it couldn’t see any better in the fog than we could, even with the Kryptonite colored eyes.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Fabulous shots, guys! As many times as I’ve seen cormorants, I’ve never seen one up close enough to see the beautiful patterns and colors of their feathers. I’ve also never seen one pooping…well, until now. They’re fascinating when they dive and then sometimes look like Loch Ness Monsters swimming with just their heads above the water.
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Sorry about the pooping visual; just try to un-see that now. Glad we could provide a bit of comic relief. But hey, it’s a natural behavior. I, too, was impressed with the patterns on their feathers. Through the viewfinder they certainly aren’t very obvious. It wasn’t until I had the photos on the big screen at home that I actually noticed them. And the color of the eyes really pops on the big screen. Good tip for future sightings: look for the Loch Ness Monster in the water. Thanks for coming by Mike and Kellye.
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Wonderful Cormorant photos. They are such silly birds. They have have a wonderful prehistoric look about them. I’ve heard a lot of people having WP problems. I haven’t been able to comment directly on a lot of blogs for a long time. I have to comment through the Reader.,
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Thanks Tim. Yes, they are silly birds. Well, they might be if I ever saw them doing anything. As far as WP goes, I’ve only had problems with some letters not working when creating comments, usually the “n” and the “r”. I hit ESCape and reload the window and it works for a while. No other browser or app has this problem so far. Just my two cents.
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It its not one thing, its another – I thought I was done chasing the spirits in the machine…nope
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I can’t stand having to use the reader (at least on my phone) – been typing since my mother forced me to take classes when I was 15 (to support my planned career) and having to go back to hunting and pecking on the phone drives me nuts. By using two different browsers I’ve been able to workaround most of my problems at the moment, but a total pain in the ass.
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I never use the phone to look at posts. It’s too much response cost. I tried to respond to comments with the phone. That was a freaking disaster. Young people use their phones for everything. I use it for taking photos, texting and answering the rare legitimate phone call. I do occasionally place calls, but that’s about as rare as getting a legitimate call.
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Everyone that knows me pretty much knows if you want to get a hold of me you text me. So much spam calls these days I don’t even bother looking at any calls that comes in by way of a direct phone call. I will call you back if it is too much to type a response, but for the most part it is texting and simply having one with me just in case I go down while out on a training run. I honestly don’t know how kids function today with their noses buried in their phones.
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I prefer texts because I can’t hear very well, and it’s really hard to get names and numbers right while on a phone call. I have one friend who calls regularly and we talk about life the universe and everything, but that is the exception. He called yesterday to tell me about his Thanksgiving at home alone with pizza. Laurie and I convinced him he had a way better Thanksgiving meal than we did, and he didn’t had to come up with BS about what he was thankful for as we had to go around the table and share about what we a thankful for. Ugh! I would rather stay home and have pizza than a traditional Thanksgiving meal with extended family. The extended family had been together for five birthdays and one anniversary celebration before Thanksgiving. I would have been more thankful to be left at home on Thanksgiving. But I left that part out of my what I’m thankful for speech.
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Holy crap…you were somewhere where they actually did the around the table declare what you are thankful for!?!?!? I would have had an emergency bathroom run right before my turn came. Luckily that would never go over in my family gatherings – we are also all like-minded on the political front so our gatherings don’t get conflicted with that crap. I wonder if you can get Turkey on a pizza..hmmm, now you have me thinking for next year.
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We were supposed to eat at 2:00. It was 4:30 before everyone was gathered around the table with the food getting cold. Laurie’s dad wanted to do the share what you’re thankful for before we ate. That just about caused a riot. All of us local extended family are politically like minded. Not the case with the family in Seattle.
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I can imagine. Sometimes you have to grit the teeth and bear it out for the good of the family. I am sure Laurie appreciated the support.
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I like the “stink-eye” look as it gazes toward you. Of course it should command more attention than those simple herons.
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I think that’s precisely what it was thinking Jerry. I did take a moment to look around and every camera I could see was pointed at something else; no one was photographing the cormorant right then. Maybe in addition to Brian’s guidance of “shooting the loners” I can amend it to “shoot (photograph) the ones that aren’t doing anything”. At least not doing anything obvious.
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A new golden rule!
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Great post and shots of a water bird not shared so often! We have LOTS of DCCOs around the Chesapeake Bay. I love taking photos of them taking off, running on the water. 🙂 If you or Brian get a chance to check out my latest post, I’m curious if you’ve ever seen a blue-footed cormorant like the one I just shared.
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Thanks Donna! We saw this one sitting around all day long, literally for nearly 8 hours that one day. Thanks for stopping by.
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I have definitely not seen a blue footed Cormorant like that – very intriguing – nice find!
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Fantastic moments and photos of Cormorants! The complaining Cormorant made me smile and the flying Cormorant is so graceful in flight. I am waiting for spring when our Cormorants will return.
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I’m glad you liked the photos Kaya. Since we are travelling southeast again this winter, I’m looking forward to finding them again.
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I once embarrassed myself by confusing a cormorant for an anhingha. 🙂 I won’t make that mistake again! Thanks for the fact-filled post, Brad and company! ❤
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Thank you Cheryl. Funny you should mention that. Early on in my birding experience, I confused them the other way around. I’m pretty sure now if it’s not a cormorant, I’d know it as an anhinga. Pretty sure.
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No one should give you any shade for getting those two birds mixed up, they are very similar in their coloring and outside the subtleties in their head profile anyone could make that mistake. The real fun begins trying to distinguish the Neotropic Cormorant from the Double-Crested ha.
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Nice photos in great light, and I love the feather details you captured. I haven’t seen a Double-crested Cormorant yet (that I know of). Down here along the Texas Gulf Coast, we see the Neotropic Cormorant. It sounds like the two may have very similar perching preferences… we often see the Neotropics on fence posts, sign posts, and piers. All seem very willing to let humans – even humans with great long lenses – come quite close.
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Thank you Sam. That’s precisely what this cormorant was doing; letting humans with really large glass approach very closely. Closely enough that I had to pull back on the zoom a bit. Jan was even closer with the 70-200 lens than I was, she’s just out of frame in a few of the photos. Huntington Beach State Park is a great location for dozens of types of birds. Carefully time your visit with migrations, if possible, for even more birds.
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Huntington Beach, SC, now bookmarked in my “future locations” folder. Thx!
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Great post on a bird which is not all white.
I grew up along Florida’s Gulf coast and one spot we fished often was adjacent to an island used as a cormorant roost. Just about dawn, hundreds of them began taking off and it was like a great dark cloud obscured the sun for a bit. Great birds to watch. Although I confess to calling them bad names when they snatched fish right off my hook.
Regarding WP issues. Me too. Sometimes, using a different browser works. Sometimes, comments (incoming and outgoing) end up in spam folders. Sigh. Technology is a wunnerful thing.
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Wow! That’s a lot of cormorants Wally. I’ve only ever seen, at most, three at a time. Maybe by the time we saw this one, all of its friends had taken off for the day.
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You are dead on there Wally. I now keep two different browsers open and swap between them when one fails. Ridiculous waste of time, but that’s where I am at at the moment. Definitely have the spam thing going on – nothing I can do about that when I post beyond noting it when it doesn’t get reflected on the refresh, but when I try to post the exact same comment WP tell me I already submitted it. The amount of sleep I have lost thanks to technology is staggering ha.
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Great post on a bird which is not all white.
I grew up along Florida’s Gulf coast and one spot we fished often was adjacent to an island used as a cormorant roost. Just about dawn, hundreds of them began taking off and it was like a great dark cloud obscured the sun for a bit. Great birds to watch. Although I confess to calling them bad names when they snatched fish right off my hook.
Regarding WP issues. Me too. Sometimes, using a different browser works. Sometimes, comments (incoming and outgoing) end up in spam folders. Sigh. Technology is a wunnerful thing.
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It is a very animated bird! Nice shots! I wish I knew what it was thinking. Word press on the phone app has never worked properly for me. It kicks me out after I make a comment on a person’s post. Sometimes those comments do not actually go through. Sometimes they are on the post.
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I’ve experienced the random “lost” comment when using my mobile phone app, too. Most of the birds we saw that day were fishing or feeding somehow. This one was just sitting there squawking. Maybe it was bragging that its fishing was done for the day. Thanks for stopping by Sharon.
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I am beginning to feel less special now that everyone seem to be having similar problems with WP ha. I keep battling with it – one of these days it will get straightened out.
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Good luck! I contacted them a few times about it and nothing changed. The phone app has many issues and has from the start.
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Unfortunately, I do not have high hopes of a quick resolution, but as they say..there is always a chance ha.
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