I overlooked that the Cormorant Watch site is not just for cormorants but for mergansers and goosanders too. It is pretty important that the scale of the problem is illustrated. Looking at the map some areas are reporting well but others, including my own, are not. Keep your eyes open for any of these birds and please do make sure that when you do see them that you get it on this important record. Thank you.

richard

__________________
Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

The goosander, confusingly Mergus merganser, is now very common in south east Wales where once they were only rare visitors. Image is of river Usk goosander from Untitled Page

__________________


Save the softmouth trout

21 birds there at 1lbs of fish per day each** = 21lbs per day = 7,665 lbs of fish per year. If the fish are the usual half pounders = 15,330 fish per annum lost to that river to that group of mergansers only...


So please do record them!

Thank you.


richard

**(Sayler and Lagler, 1940), Elson (1962)

__________________
Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

how do you rate the figures given that the fish dumped at sea ammmounts to £2.4 billion, whats with the watch thing, leave the birds alone, we can change our diet, these birds have been fish eaters for millions of years, we have them in the highlands and I like to see them, we will be checking on ospreys next ,
easker1

They've been fish eaters for millions of years elsewhere. They are aliens to these shores and have no natural enemies to control their numbers.

Ospreys are natives and should be here as are Great Crested Grebes and Herons. The aliens are eating their fish too.

richard

__________________
Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

Goosanders and Mergansers are native birds,how do you stop migrating birds?
cormorants and shags are native too, OK some migrate to the UK, why do you think that is? perhaps the sea fishery is in dire straits, I did read that 75% of the worlds fisheries are in decline , I wonder whose fault that is Eh?certainly not the birds , easker1

Goosanders and Mergansers were introduced by the hand of Man...

Cormorants and Shags are coastal birds by nature. You are right about the sea and about whose fault it is. Inland fisheries cannot cope with the onslaught of such a successful piscivor that, because it is an alien, has no natural enemies here to control the population. It isn't just anglers who lose out at the success of these massive flocks of sawbills working together. Native piscivors are losing out too by being out competed. These include: great crested grebes, little grebes, herons, bitterns, red throated divers, black throated divers, great northern divers, even kingfishers lose out to them as they are perfectly happy eating small fish because they prefer to go after shoal fish. Then there are other creatures like trout themselves, pike, even bullheads who eat pin fry but because the fish population can be reduced so much by these aliens there are fewer fry for them to eat. The best solution would be to eliminate them completely from the British Isles so that the natural balance between fish and piscivors can be restored

richard

__________________
Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

Hi Richard,

Do you know how, why and when they were introduced (goosander / mergansers)

Just out of interest really.

__________________
Time is a stream I go fishing in.

Peter Scott's Slimbridge reserve on the Severn estuary? Certainly goosander were only recorded as rare migrants previous to the site's inception. Soon spread to the Wye and Usk, in their hundreds, and thence outwads.

__________________


Save the softmouth trout

They would seem to have been around alot longer than that.


'Overall, the species is not threatened, though illegal persecution by game fishing interests is a problem in some areas.[12]

Within western Europe, there has been a marked southward spread from Scandinavia in the breeding range since about 1850, colonising Scotland in 1871, England in 1941, and also a strong increase in the population in the Alps.[4] A small breeding population has recently been established in Ireland.

The Goosander is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.'

__________________
Don't worry, be happy.
Sandy
Carried it in full, then carry it out empty.