I'm not talking about anyone in particular, but it's hard not to notice that it now seems politically correct, if not even fashionable, among many birders to speak about double-crested cormorants as if they were some kind of plague. More than maxima Canada geese, mute swans, house sparrows, rock pigeons, European starlings, etc., cormorants are reviled, and in a routine fashion that seems to expect universal agreement. Locally, these native birds have increased over the past forty years, largely because of reductions in pollution that once ravaged them, and perhaps because of the spread of non-native fish species in the Great Lakes. There's increasing evidence they're only regaining lost ground. Other native species--ring-billed gull is an example, or northern cardinal--have greatly increased populations in Ohio, but you don't hear birders complaining a lot about them. People say cormorants reduce populations of other colonial waterbirds, such as herons and egrets, but recent numbers really don't show this, and even if they did it would be evidence more likely of the very few acres we allow colonial waterbirds to occupy for nesting. Bill Whan Columbus "Thinking is what a great many people think they are doing when they are merely rearranging their prejudices"--William James. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]