News
Breeding
Report
In June 2013 the IUCN-Wetlands
International Cormorant Research Group published the first
technical report with national chapters from 23 of the countries
that participated in the breeding count of Great Cormorants in
2012. A summary of the findings are contained on the results page and the
full report is available here.
In November (or before) a final
scientific report from the 2012-13 count of breeding colonies in
the Western Palearctic will be published by the Cormorant Research
Group. This report will contain national chapters from all the
countries that decided to use this opportunity to publish their
results in English. So for some countries the same chapter will be
published in the technical report as well as in the scientific
report. This final report will also include a chapter in which the
overall results will be described and compared with the count in
2006.
(updated 2-9-2013)
Information on the EU Cormorant
Platform
A table will be published on the EU
Cormorant Platform in July. This table will give the number of
nests for each of the countries that have a chapter in the first
IUCN-WI CRG report. The table will include a reference for each
country to the author(s) and a link to the pdf of the relevant
national chapter given in the report.
The July update of the EU Cormorant
Platform will also include information about the overall coverage
reached during the breeding count in 2012-13 and during the winter
roost count in January 2013.
(updated 22-3-2013)
Winter Roost Count - January 2013
Over the weekend of the 12th
and 13th of January 2013 a large number of people across Europe
took part in winter roost counts of cormorants. At the end of the
day during the non-breeding season and especially during the winter
migration period all cormorants from a given area aggregate at a
communal night roost - a traditional site used night after night
and year after year. This communal roosting allows observers to
count the cormorants, and assists in population estimates.
Following unusually mild temperature across Europe at the end of
December, temperatures dropped and ice began to form in northern
areas in January before the counts took place.
National Report Published in
Switzerland
The Swiss Ornithological Institute
has published a detailed report on the breeding population of
cormorants. Cormorant numbers showed a marked increase in 2012 with
a total of 1,037 nests in 13 colonies. Read more here.
Coverage of Europe during the 2012
count of colonies
The coverage has been very good,
despite some difficulties with funding, man power and logistics. So
far, 32 countries have participated and we wish to thank everybody
who made the counts a success already. The countries for which
we still have no or limited information about breeding numbers in
2012 are: Ireland, costal UK, Kainingrad, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Moldova, Romania, Turkey and Georgia. The Counts Project will give
it high priority to find ways of organising counts of colonies in
most of these "missing" countries in 2013. Some countries have
provided us with the information from their counts and some
countries have already published their results. Other countries are
still working on getting the last bits of
information.
Finland 2012 Breeding Count
Published
Finland has published breeding
numbers from the 2012 national count. The Finnsh cormorant breeding
population decreased compared to last year (from 17,712 pairs in
2011 to 17,108 in 2012), suggesting that the population
increase has come to a hault. For more information about the
breeding population in Finland, visit the PEER press
release
here.
Danish Cormorant Numbers Increased in 2012
A report published towards the end
of 2012 showed that the Danish cormorant population has increased
for the first time in years. The breeding population has been
decreasing since the mid 2000s, but in 2012 numbers showed an
increase (from 25,542 pairs in 2011 to 27,109 pairs in 2012). Read
more in Danish
here