I've been editing some historical pieces on the birds of Grand Lake St 
Marys for the next Ohio Cardinal issue. One of them is by the eminent 
naturalist Charles Dury, who studied the Lake in the 1860s.
        Dury's paper, which we'll be reprinting in its entirety, is often cited 
as central to the history of double-crested cormorants in Ohio, but not 
many have read it. Clark & Sipe's citation in "Birds of the Lake St. 
Marys Area" is erroneous, and the journal in which it was actually 
published is hard to find.
        Interesting in many ways, the paper is particularly so in its treatment 
of cormorants. Dury mentions "seemingly endless swarms" of them, "great 
numbers," saying that the largest rookery (indicating there was more 
than one) was called "Cranetown," where "quantities were shot for their 
feathers." He calls the numbers of fishes they consumed "enormous." 
Elsewhere he says of this rookery "[h]ere I used to go to shoot them, 
with the natives who wanted them for their feathers. I have helped kill 
a boat load."
        Frank Langdon ("Observations on Cincinnati Birds", 1878) wrote that 
Dury had told him the cormorants had "rapidly decreased in numbers" over 
the previous eleven years. Dawson ("The Birds of Ohio", 1903) explained 
this by describing these birds as "fiercely persecuted by fishermen and 
thoughtlessly shot by every would-be sportsman who can hit a flying 
barn." Dawson states he had seen only one living cormorant in Ohio, so 
this must be hearsay, though it has the ring of truth.
        Another article we reproduce, from W.F. Henninger describing a birding 
trip to GLSM in 1904, describes the devastation of the wildlife habitat 
at the lake, and it is easy to imagine that people who fished for a 
living might have blamed cormorants for the failure of their livelihood, 
just when the cormorants themselves suffered from the loss of the 
fishery through environmental degradation.
        Without Dury's testimony we likely would have no knowledge of this 
impressive colony. If there were others, they had no chroniclers. Little 
careful evidence of bird populations remains from mid-19th century Ohio. 
The very curious J.P. Kirtland had many correspondents and readers, but 
his knowledge of Ohio birds in the 1850s had many gaping holes. Grand 
Lake St Marys is an artificial reservoir, completed only the decade 
before Dury's visits. What must have been the status of cormorants in 
the region if a large nesting colony established itself over such a 
short time? And what effect might the then-prevalent delusion that 
wildlife was inexhaustible (there are several poignant examples in 
Dury's piece) have had on what observers bothered to record for posterity?
        As it happens, cormorant biologists Linda Wires and Francesca Cuthbert 
have taken a look at questions like these, and concluded that 
cormorants, despite what we hear from certain sources, are probably far 
less numerous in the Great Lakes than they once were. In historical 
perspective, there probably is no recent "explosion" or "invasion" of 
these birds.
        Their 2006 article, "Historic populations of the Double-crested 
Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus): Implications for conservation and 
management in the 21st century" from Waterbirds 29(1):9-37 is available 
on the Web at:
	
http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-toc&issn=1524-4695&volume=29&issue=1

This is quite readable stuff from scientists who know their cormorants. 
Here are two sentences for a start: "For this species, and others that 
are seen as competitors with humans, limits of human tolerance (i.e. 
“social carrying capacity”) are far narrower than those of biological 
carrying capacity. Because large numbers have been typical for 
cormorants historically, population targets based on fishery or other 
objectives derived from human values will likely be readily surpassed, 
require intensive management, and significantly depart from the concept 
of conserving birds in natural numbers and natural habitats."
        If you feel that killing large numbers of native birds is a very 
serious undertaking--especially if done in the name of science and 
conservation by government agents devoted to wildlife--and deserves the 
most careful consideration (and reconsideration), the perspective this 
study provides will be of help.
Bill Whan
Columbus
	
	
	
	
	
	

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