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| "Cormorant" |
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At first glance it just looked like another case of human beings doing crazy things in the name of art. After reading the etched in aluminum information pole I found that this seemingly meaningless assorted sized white poles sticking out of the water at White Rock Lake Water Garden was just unfinished most of the time. There is no apparent reason for these poles but they made good perch sites for one of our local waterfowl, the cormorant. Then I read that the birds are part de' art! When the birds are present and perched, it's art. When they are not, it's poles sticking out of the water. Ok, it's still a little crazy, but at least it makes more sense. We received a cormorant here at the Living Materials Center this week. Double-crested cormorants have long, thin necks and a large, rounded, orange throat pouch. Adults are black while immature birds are light brown with pale throat and chest areas. Males and females are similar in appearance. They have a straight bill that is hooked at the tip. While wading, the cormorant looks like a periscope sticking up out of the water. They are usually silent, except for pig-like grunting calls in the nesting colony. Double-crested cormorants are often seen perched with their wings spread out. To reduce buoyancy for diving, cormorants lack waterproofing oils. After fishing, the cormorant must hold its wings open in the sun and breeze to dry. |
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Double-crested cormorants dive and swim around in pursuit of prey, generally to depths of five to 25 feet below the water’s surface. They usually stay under less than 30 seconds but can stay submerged up to 70 seconds. Their diet consists of fish, salamanders, spider crabs, shrimp, crayfish, some reptiles, mollusks and sea worms. These birds are migrants. They reside in Texas March through May and again September through November. They spend winter on the west coast and summer in the north. The one we have came to us from Animal Services and has a broken wing. She will be transferred to the Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Hutchins, Texas. The prognosis is good. For the thousands of you who called or e-mailed about last week’s column I have a correction. The spider on my neck in the photo is Gertrude the tarantula, my traveling companion to classrooms for the last fifteen years. The photo description is of another spider mentioned in the text and that photo and one other may have gotten lost in the computer. |
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Contact Jim Dunlap, director of the Holifield Science Learning Center of Plano Independent School District, 3100 Shiloh Road, at 469-752-1194 or jdunlap@pisd.edu. |
