Bird Fishermen

Despite a fishing ban at Duke Farms, I encountered these 2 fishermen out at Heron Lake this past July. I can only assume that this Double-crested Cormorant and Green Heron were attempting to exchange fishing tips, but given their different styles of fishing each probably thought the other was crazy:

  • Green Heron: "Are you nuts? You don't want to go thrashing around in the water! You'll scare all the fish away doing that. Just find some shallow water, slowly and carefully walk along the shore, and when you spot a fish, just grab it."
  • Double-crested Cormorant: "No, no, no - that's not the way to fish. Sure you might get lucky and bump into a particularly stupid fish, but you want to be out there in the middle of the lake. Then when you notice a fish, dive after it. Go as deep as you need to when pursuing it, then grab it in your beak. That's the way to fish."
  • And don't even try and talk to them about fishing poles. 😀
I'd imagine they'll be arguing for a while, but since both these birds are somewhat abundant, both methods are obviously effective.

July 31, 2022 at Duke Farms
Photo 222578481, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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