FEATHERED FISHING FRENZY

     While watching bird activity on Lake Onalaska, a back-water off the Mississippi River in Wisconsin, by live camera and our computer screen in mid-August of this year, I saw a few kinds of birds involved in a fishing frenzy.  Flocks of American white pelicans, ring-billed gulls and double-crested cormorants, in that order of abundance, plus a few each of great egrets and Caspian terns, were excited to be catching fish.  And they were all exciting to watch catching fish in one place, at once, each species in its own way.  

     Majestic pelicans formed a group on shallow water and herded fish into a tight school.  Then all the pelicans together dipped their great, open beaks gracefully into the water, time after time, to scoop up as many fish as they could before the fish slipped away.  

     Each bird in gatherings of ring-bills hovers momentarily just above the water and drops into it to seize one fish at a time in its beak.  The many gulls dropping gracefully to the water, then up, then down again in their attempts to catch fish are an intriguing sight.  

     Cormorants dive under water from the surface to snare fish in their bills.  Many cormorants diving, and rising to the surface, at once, to swallow fish, are amazing to watch. 

    Stately great egrets, like all herons and egrets, wade carefully in shallow water and watch for fish to grab individually in their long, yellow beaks.  When prey is spotted, each egret lunges forward its lengthy neck so the beak can catch the victim.      

     Elegant Caspian terns hover above the water to watch for fish.  When finny prey is seen, each tern drops beak-first into the water and snares the victim in its sturdy, red bill.

     Each species of fish-eating birds is built for the way it catches fish.  Pelicans and cormorants are built like boats to float on the water's surface.  And the cormorants are slim to slip under water.  Egrets have long legs for wading into the water and lengthy necks to reach out to seize their prey.  And gulls and terns are graceful to hover into the wind and dive into the water from the air.    

     I was delighted to see those handsome, fish-eating birds catching fish in one spot at one time, which created an interesting spectacle.  Scenes like that are an added bonus when I am out nature-snooping.

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