Tag: Double-Crested Cormorant

Fish Guzzling

We are winding down here at Intrigued as the last of the 2025 events are slowly coming to a close. Yesterday I finished up the last of the crown work which ended up being far more painful than expected thanks to the temporary cap somehow welding to my tooth – have I mentioned before how much I absolutely abhor dental work – just point to a dental drill bit and I’ll give up my mother in an interrogation. Fingers crossed later today I get released by the ankle surgeon, so I can fully enjoy tonight’s Intrigued staff gathering – trust me, you want to be fully healthy before attending one of those parties – the weak are culled ha. That just leaves Linda’s family Christmas gathering and then ours before the trek to warmer weather. Hopefully we will be able to make a few more posts before we stop the presses and turn the lights out on this injury riddled year.

Before I get into the real reason you are here, thought I would pat ourselves on the back and note that last post from Brad marked our 1,000th post here on our wildlife sister site (the Intrigued mothership is currently at 1,533 – even a few of those were lost as we transitioned to the WP service from our own servers). A big thanks to all the staff that got us to this point!

Okay, since we are winding “down”, decided it would be appropriate to go with another “down” of sorts…this one being down the hatch.

Double-Crested Cormorant swallowing fish found at Port Aransas South Jetty, TX in March 2024

I think you already know where this is going, but hit the jump to confirm!

Continue reading Fish Guzzling

NAWWS (Not Another White Wading Shorebird)…by Brad Marks

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?

Double-Crested Cormorant by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to reveal the latest “emerald” gem from South Carolina.

Continue reading NAWWS (Not Another White Wading Shorebird)…by Brad Marks

Low Rider

My little vacation has come to an end and back to work I go.  Don’t feel too sorry for me, I basically have 4 days of work left before I close the books on this year.  Thankfully, I’ll be able to look forward to a much better year as this one I’d just as soon forget altogether.  We’ll be heading back down to Texas sometime in the first couple of months in hopes of getting the first part of the new year off on the right foot.  Knowing how much content those trips add to the photography queue, figured I’d try my best to pop some of the previous Texas finds off the queue – some of those still need proper IDs and need some final validation from Ron (those damn Terns all look alike from afar).  Fortunately, today’s featured feathered friend was easy to classify.

Double-Crested Cormorant found on Galveston Island, Texas December 2016

This rather smug looking  waterbird was found while visiting Galveston Island State Park back in December 2016 (Yes B in the UK I am still waaaay behind ha).  While exploring the trails and shorelines for Clapper Rails, I came upon this Cormorant hanging out in the packed sand.  Not being up on my Cormorant game, I initially ID’d it as a female knowing the rest of the Cormorants that I’ve photographed were splendored in much darker to all black feathering (link here).  At the time it wasn’t obvious whether this specimen was the standard Double-Crested variety or the Neotropic which I had previously photographed in the same place (link here).

Double-Crested Cormorant found on Galveston Island, Texas December 2016

Hit the jump to read more about my education on this particular species.

Continue reading Low Rider

My Crested Style Fu is Superior to Your Pelikido

It appears I finally broke my consecutive post streak.  Was on a roll thanks to outside forces driving me to get through as much of the Texas related birding encounters as possible.  Deadline is still there, I just had the opportunity to enjoy a guilty pleasure this weekend – I happen to be part of a top ranking fake group on Rock Band and we were able to get the band together Friday.  It has been awhile and we were all a bit rusty.  We had a great time even though my arms are now sore from the night of drumming – I may have to start warming up before we play now eesh.  Before you laugh at me too much, we have put our computer engineering skills to good use – our singer has modified a real mic and I have a full electronic Roland drum set that feeds through an Ion head to a midi converter to now an Xbox-360 to Xbox-One pigtail converter and then to the console.  Thinking that still isn’t helping my case any ha!   Reality of it all is I am now trying to get back in the posting saddle.  Thanks to having to do this while traveling on the road, thought I would go with a post that doesn’t need a lot of research – had to leave my reference books at home.

Today’s featured post comes to you courtesy of Seawolf Park near Galveston Texas.  We were visiting that location for the first time back in January 2017 which produced a number of intriguing experiences.  While hunting for dolphins from their wharf, I spotted a Double-Crested Cormorant looking tauntingly at a nearby Brown Pelican.  Screw the dolphins, this might turn out quite interesting.

Double-Crested Cormorant and Brown Pelican tangle at Seawolf Park in Galveston Texas January 2017

Slowly their paths converged.  An entire gulf of water to explore, yet each one refusing to yield their path to the other.   Hubris had once again taken root in its victims giving false confidence to its host.  So there it stood, the formidable Crested-Fu style of the Cormorant paired off against the more physically dominating Pelikido of the larger bodied Brown Pelican.  Surely cooler heads wood prevail – maybe a respectful bow and mutual diversion of their conflicting trajectories.

NOPE!

Double-Crested Cormorant and Brown Pelican tangle at Seawolf Park in Galveston Texas January 2017

Hit the jump to see how this angry bird encounter turns out!

Continue reading My Crested Style Fu is Superior to Your Pelikido

Cormorant Need Nomorant

It was a big birding day today! Early count puts me somewhere in the 14 to 16 new birds to add to my list and should put some distance from my brother’s recent charge. Based on that haul I can probably take the rest of the year off from bird posts so all of you non-aviary oriented readers out there are probably going to rejoice knowing this is probably the last post of its kind until 2016 (I can already hear the collective cheers).

I have to say, today’s featured bird is one of those I always knew I had in the tin, but just wasn’t sure when it was obtained and which location it was taken at. This is primarily due to the huge delay in getting things processed as of late. Truth to be told it is really which of the location”s” was going to come up first since I know this bird was shot during at least 3 or 4 different shoots.

Double-Crested Cormorant in South Dakota

Turns out, the first one to pop off the queue was the series taken at Lake Andes in South Dakota.  If you recall from the previous posts, Lake Andes turned out to be quite the haul for new birds.  Unfortunately, these particular specimens were holding court a significant distance from where we were able to shoot on the banks.  The Beast was straining with all its might to pull them in and as you would expect (and in this case physically see the results), the shots turned out a little soft.  Not bad for the distance, but definitely not gallery worthy in any manner.  Luckily, the quality of the shot doesn’t come into play on whether you get the checkmark or not (I won’t mention names, but I know someone that is claiming a certain yellow highlighted bird on his birding list that has an equal chance of being a school bus based on the shot results hehehe).

Double-Crested Cormorant in South Dakota

Hit the jump to read a bit more about this large bird.

Continue reading Cormorant Need Nomorant