There are times especially in early fall when the water roils in the coves of Cape Ann and birds congregate in a feeding frenzy on tiny fish migrating from coastal nurseries to the open ocean. These fish are juvenile menhaden, or pogies, driven to the surface attempting to escape the jaws of predators pursuing them from below. Considering what must be the vast numbers consumed - or that throw themselves up on the shore in a vain leap for freedom - it seems remarkable that these 'schoolies' populate the ocean year after year as a sustaining element of the maritime food chain.
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Double-crested Cormorants, Folly Cove |
Cormorants that are usually solitary hunters congregate for a feast when pogies are trapped along the shoreline.
They gorge on the myriad silvery fish that at this stage of their life have various local names, including "peanut bunkers."
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Ring-billed Gull and cormorants |
Cormorants are not the only opportunists. Certain aerodynamically buoyant species of gulls hover over the water surface waiting for the pogies to be driven upward by voracious bluefish and striped bass.
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Laughing Gulls swarming... |
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...and plucking fish from the surface. |
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Cormorant surfacing with mature pogey |
When they move through our inshore waters earlier in the year, calorie-rich pogies become a favorite food of many other species.
One supposes the bird will not have to fly far or frequently after such a satisfying meal.
Extraordinary photos🙂
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