A Cormorant with a Catch
These two Double-crested Cormorants were diving in a local pond for fish. One was successful and the other was out of luck. Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the photo. Enjoy!
These two Double-crested Cormorants were diving in a local pond for fish. One was successful and the other was out of luck. Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the photo. Enjoy!
Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of each of these photos I recently took here in The Villages, Florida. Enjoy!
Double-crested Cormorants are water birds that are often found in the company of White Pelicans here in The Villages, Florida during the Winter months. These dark brown and grey birds have an orange bill that has a slight hook at the tip, blue eyes, and orange-brown legs and feet. Their feet are webbed like a duck. After diving for food, they need to spread their wings out while perched to allow their feathers to dry out so they may fly.
Double-crested Cormorants mostly eat fish and are found here in lakes and ponds as well as marshes and along the sea coast. They are great fliers and roost in tall trees. Here in The Villages I often see many of these birds at Freedom Pointe Lake and at the little Golf View Lake pond near Lake Paradise. Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the photo. Enjoy!
Snowy Egrets were spotted as a small flock of perhaps ten birds, at the lovely little “Golf View Lake” pond behind the Paradise Recreation Center and Mark Twain Library here in The Villages, Florida on Tuesday, February 11, 2020 in the afternoon. This is likely a migratory flock on its way up North. It is very unusual to see so many Snowy Egrets (and probably seven Great Egrets) together. There also was a White Pelican, several Double-crested Cormorants, a Great Blue Heron, and two Canada Geese at the pond while I was there.
These are fish and frog-eating birds that wade in the shallows of ponds, streams, lakes and marshes to catch their prey with the sharp long bill. Snowy Egrets are small white egrets with mustard yellow legs and feet with a black bill. Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the photo. Enjoy!
Double Crested Cormorants are somewhat seasonal Winter migrant birds here in The Villages, Florida. A few do stay all year around though. These water birds especially like to accompany White Pelicans in their migration from up North. The cormorants roost in tall trees such as Oaks and Cypress near the water’s edge.
Cormorants often cooperatively hunt with small pods of White Pelicans. Double Crested Cormorants dive to hunt for fish, frogs, small turtles, and baby alligators in lakes, ponds and rivers as well as fresh and salt water marshes. Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture. Enjoy!
I took these pictures early last evening 10/21/19 in The Villages, FL. Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture. Enjoy!
Wading birds, ducks, exotic geese, cormorants, and egrets were all spotted in The Villages, FL this past weekend. It was so fun to see five resident White Pelicans at the Nancy Lopez course. Those pelicans have now been here for the past three years and apparently do not migrate North with the hundreds of other White Pelicans that spend the Winter here.
Bird watching is such a pleasant hobby! I so enjoy sharing the views of the many different birds here in The Villages with you via this blog. Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the photo. Enjoy!
Anhinga birds and Double-crested Cormorants are very similar aquatic birds. The differences are the bill and body size with only faint differences about the feathers. The Anhingas are more slender and have a very straight slender sword-like bill. The female Anhinga is more brown in color with a light tan throat. These females are also nicknamed “Piano birds” for the pattern of their feathers.
The Double-crested Cormorants can be distinguished by the slightly hooked tip of their long also sword-like bill. The cormorants also are much heftier and blocky in body than the Anhingas. Both eat fish, frogs, and small turtles. Both are experts in flight as well as swimming. Both the Anhingas and Double-crested Cormorants are referred to as “Snake birds” as they come up from diving with only their long sinuous neck and their head peeking out of the water.
The Anhingas are here all year long but the cormorants mostly are migratory with the White Pelicans. Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture. Enjoy!
Most of the White Pelicans have started leaving for their homes up North now. I have only seen just a handful of the big white birds around here in the last week. We still have several groups of the cormorants but those too, will be off on their Spring migration very soon.
I took most of these pictures within the past month here on the ponds and small lakes at the Nancy Lopez Legacy Golf Course; Freedom Pointe Lakes; La Hacienda Golf Course pond; and Golf View Lake pond, and Lake Paradise. These are all places where year after year, I have spotted White Pelicans in Winter months.
The White Pelicans arrive in December and leave around the first two weeks of April here. We did have a few stick around all year long this past year here. That was unusual. Our ponds here have been fished heavily with all the pelicans, cormorants, fishing ducks and wading birds that have been here these last few months. It was wonderful to see the pelicans and I will eagerly await their return next Winter! Please click on the thumbnail images to see the slightly larger version of the picture. Enjoy!