Quote:
Originally Posted by Northwinds
I have found on my lakes that a osprey will catch 3-5 trout/day if feeding chicks, these were 1lb trout. Also noted are mature birds sitting with a trout in their claws eating on it all day long,so my estimation would be 1lb of trout/day per bird.
Cormorants- will consume up to 1.25lb's of trout per day ,they will bite and kill larger fish but cannot swallow them, leaving them to die at a later date.
Telltale signs of a cormorant killed fish is a vertical slash mid body.
HERONS-will catch 2 or 3 fish per hour 8-12" long-they will spear much larger fish which will die at a later date as well.Easy to tell a Heron kill,look for a single puncture wound near the dorsal fin
Pelicans-will consume 5-8 lbs of fish per day.Fish size varies from small minnows up to 6 lb fish.
Eagles seem to get bigger fish,in fact. often they only hunt where the largest fish are kept.A 3-5 lb trout seems to be their favorite size.They catch and then often disappear for a few days.
I really don't mind the eagles as there presence will keep both osprey and cormorants away. LOL BUT so does a eagle kite and it doesn't eat fish!!!!!
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I counted 9 cormorant at this one small lake ,,each cormorant can eat up to 10 trout per day,,i noticed yesterday there was only 1 cormorant left and i wasn't catching any fish ,there was 3000 trout stocked in this pond in may month,,its like no fish even briching ,,i thing cororants are doing more damage then the loon