Cormorants

[Spinach]

More cormorants to be killed on Leech Lake

ST. PAUL (AP) ? The state Department of Natural Resources approved plans to kill as many as 4,000 double-crested cormorants on Leech Lake, a year after sharpshooters killed nearly 3,000 of the birds.


The culling of the fish-eating bird began last spring as a response to a decline in the central Minnesota lake?s young walleye population. Studies show cormorants damaged fisheries in other states, and a review is under way to look at the birds? diet on Leech Lake.


Resort owners and anglers claim the birds are now moving to other lakes, including Lake Winnibigoshish.


?We believe it will reduce the number of birds that are seen on other lakes in the vicinity of Leech Lake,? said Lee Pfannmuller, director of the DNR?s Division of Ecological Services. ?When they are harassed at one site, they can pick up and move considerable distances. And Lake Winnie is just a hop, skip and jump away from Leech Lake.?


DNR officials said they believe there is enough evidence to suggest that the birds are affecting the lake?s walleye population.


The cormorants also are displacing a colony of rare terns on Little Pelican Island, where the birds nest.


The culling is a joint effort of the DNR, the U.S. Agriculture Department?s Wildlife Services and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, which owns Little Pelican Island where the birds nest.


The cormorant population has skyrocketed on Leech Lake. In 1998, about 73 breeding pairs were surveyed. In 2005, there were 2,525 nesting pairs and more than 10,000 individual birds.


Federal officials used shotguns and air rifles to kill the cormorants. Workers burned cormorant nesting material on Little Pelican Island to discourage future nesting.

[iceman]

any new info on this ?

are they still killing the birds or are they all done now ?

[Spinach]

I'm not sure either, this was from last spring. I was on Leech for the opener and only saw a pair of Cormorants, about the same as I see on other lakes up North in a full weekends time.

Then again, I'm not a Cormorant expert, what time of year are they seen most often?

[Mickbear76]

I logged quite a few hours out on Leech this past weekend and saw a lot of cormorants.  Most of them being out on the "big lake".  I think a lot of the culling that they do has to do with what a smaller bird the "tern" does and when they nest and mate.

[guythathunts]

I wonder if they need any help???? If so I'M IN!!!  ::50cal::
~ Greg

[Mickbear76]

I think that that list is very long.  I do know that it is ran by the federal govt. and the sharp shooters that get this privelage use high powered air rifles to keep the noise down and not the commies wisen up.

[ScottPugh]

There have been enough on Sprit island on Mille Lacs that I am sick of them!!!