John Bailey – The Kingfisher Diaries
February 17th 2010
My last diary entry ended on a note of near despair. It's like this. For several years, I've been watching a very significant shoal of Wensum roach grow steadily on the remote and protected bit of the river. This was a shoal similar in numbers and size of fish to what we used witness back in the 1960. This was a shoal of real promise, an indication that perhaps the ills of the Wensum were in the past.
But, then, we had the big freeze of 2009/2010. Stillwaters froze. Predators, otters and cormorants predominantly, were forced to look to running water for their food.
They found my roach. Over the course of some three weeks, twenty to thirty cormorants worked and reworked this shoal. As far as I'm aware, it is now pretty well totally annihilated. That massive shoal of such huge promise is no more.
For a very long time, I've tended to sit on the fence when it comes to cormorant damage. My good friend, John Wilson, of course, has been far more adamant. If we ever want river roach to return, he said, the cormorants must be dealt with. I've tried to look at the problem from all angles but this winter's massacre has made me realise that John is right and we either say goodbye to our Wensum roach for ever or we tackle the black menace head on.
I never really thought that I would write like this. I always felt that a balance would be struck. As an avid birder myself, I've always believed there must be some solution. But, Mr. Wilson, you are right and there is not one.
At Kingfishers, we will not give up. We have resources and we have commitment. The lakes now are well on their way to becoming extraordinary. The river will be next. I think I can make this pledge on behalf of all of us here. This has been a disaster but it is not the end. We will not be defeated over this issue.