Crews rush to save eggs belonging to birds that are often reviled
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A eucalyptus tree in a Marina del Rey park that was home to dozens of soon-to-hatch double-crested cormorant eggs became unstable after strong winds, prompting a rescue mission to remove the eggs earlier this month.
A total of 20 nests holding more than 60 unhatched eggs and chicks were found on the failing tree inside Burton Chace Park. The tree’s trunk split as a result of strong winds, causing a large piece to topple near a walkway leading to the park’s parking lot.
The Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors and the International Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles Wildlife Center assembled a crew to move the eggs and chicks to a safer location. Two wildlife biologists assisted in the March 10 rescue operations, according a county news release Monday.
The eggs and chicks were sent to a wildlife center in San Pedro and the rest of the tree was cut down.
Most of the rescued nests contained three to four eggs, some of which had recently hatched. Double-crested cormorants are colonial nesters, meaning they build nests close together, usually in large numbers, and in elevated areas near water as their diet mainly consists of fish, according to the National Park Service.
But cormorants have been maligned for the damage they do to the trees they make their home in and the bodies of water where they fish. Cormorants can eat an average of one pound of fish per day, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Cormorants were blamed for an 80% to 90% decline in the prey-fish population of Lake Huron, a Great Lake bordering Michigan and stretching to Canada, according to the Huron Daily Tribune.
Cormorants are also known to kill trees, shrubs and other vegetation due to the accumulation of their guano, or feces — which can be highly acidic. Cormorants also remove foliage for nesting material, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Each parent takes turns incubating the eggs over a monthlong period, according to the Department of Beaches and Harbors. It can take a cormorant five to six weeks to learn how to fly on its own. A cormorant is completely independent at month 10, according to the Sacramento Audubon Society.
“Feeding and caring for hatchlings is a delicate and time-consuming process, and Bird Rescue clinic staff are working into the night each day helping raise these birds,” the department said in a news release. “Many of the rescued chicks may be in care for up to three months.”
International Bird Rescue Chief Executive Officer JD Bergeron said the birds will be released into existing cormorant colonies when they are ready to be on their own again.
