This column is dedicated to the memory of Mike Sajna, who believed that all wild things, not just those we fish for and hunt, merit our interest, understanding and appreciation. Generally I can count on having the secluded Greene County farm pond I like to fish all to myself. But Wednesday evening I spied another angler already engrossed in his craft as I approached along the muddy path. This intruder apparently had not asked permission to fish and displayed no license. The angler was no human competitor.
Cormorants are uniformly dark-colored birds, about the size of a Canada goose.
All cormorants live by catching fish while free-swimming beneath the surface. Cormorants, though, hold the neck more erect on the water, with the bill tilted slightly upward. And while a loon's bill is straight, with a chisel-like point, the bills of cormorants are hooked downward at the tip. In saltwater and Great Lakes environments where they are more common, cormorants are often seen perched on rocks, posts or pilings with wings spread and head held erect. Thanks to nature-oriented television shows, many people who have never seen a living cormorant in this country know that inventive Japanese fishermen have used the birds for centuries.