{"id":24725,"date":"2018-09-29T10:34:37","date_gmt":"2018-09-29T17:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=24725"},"modified":"2018-10-01T08:22:05","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T15:22:05","slug":"cormorants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=24725","title":{"rendered":"Cormorants"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_22885\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22885\" class=\"wp-image-22885 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/cormorant180305as3.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-22885\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Showing the crests (Mar. 5, 2018)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Double-crested Cormorants can be seen around Kootenay Lake throughout the year. Unlike Mallards and Canada Geese, the cormorant is a somewhat uncommon sight. While a few breed at the south end of the Lake, they are primarily seen twice a year during migration.<\/p>\n<p>Our local cormorant is named, double-crested, yet, the crests are only seen briefly early in the breeding season.<\/p>\n<p>Cormorants are water birds. They are adapted for underwater swimming where they prey upon swimming and bottom fish. Unlike many other water birds, their feathers are wettable, an adaptation that prevents excess buoyancy when diving for fish. Consequently, when swimming on the surface, they float rather low in the water.\u00a0They also often carry their bills tipped up.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24731\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cormorant180927es2.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Following a dive, cormorants will sometimes face into the wind and spread their wings so as to dry them. Usually done on land, it is uncommon to see them do this while still in the water.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24730\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cormorant180927ds2.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Cormorants have relatively\u00a0small wings, which gives them a fairly high flight speed.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24729\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cormorant180927cs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The speed of a cormorant makes it a challenge to obtain a detailed shot of one flying. <br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24728\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cormorant180927bs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Juveniles have a pale neck and breast that gradually blends into its darker belly. <br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24726\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cormorant180919as2.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A cormorant expressing its opinion. <br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24727\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cormorant180919sDMF.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Double-crested Cormorants can be seen around Kootenay Lake throughout the year. Unlike Mallards and Canada Geese, the cormorant is a somewhat uncommon sight. While a few breed at the south end of the Lake, they are primarily seen twice &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=24725\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24725"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24796,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24725\/revisions\/24796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}