El Salvador Chinese Cormorant Shoot

[Caiman11]

Wednesday I got invited to participate in an invasive-species control activity organized by the ministry of environment and the local hunters' association. A breed of black chinese cormorant has invested Lago Suchitlán. With no natural predators to keep the population under control, their numbers have risen well into the tens of thousands. They've decimated the local fish population and displaced most of the native birds, taking all the good nesting sites in the process.

Long story short, they wanted us to go out to an island in the middle of the lake and put a dent in the population.

There were about 20 hunters, outfitted with a variety of weapons: .22 rimfires, a few shotguns, and a wide variety of airguns. I brought my trusty HW97kt in .177 with a hawke 3x9x40 scope for its first hunting expedition.

When we got to the island I knew it was going to be a good day. It was infested. Every tree had dozens of these things just sitting there. When they gave the order we just absolutely laid into them. The incredible thing was that these birds for whatever reason are frightened by neither gunshots nor the site of their family members getting blasted right next to them. We racked up some incredible numbers. Over three hours or so I took between 40-50 of them with headshots. One guy with a semi-auto .22 rimfire brought down 120!

I should have taken more pics, but I was too busy shooting. The first one is a close up of a bird I took at about 25 yards. The second is a pile of corpses being examined by biologists from the environmental ministry.

I landed a few shots with the hw97 from beyond 50 yards, and 2 I'm pretty sure connected from 60, although I don't have a laser range-finder to confirm. Most were between 20 and 40 yards. These birds are pretty big and surprisingly resilient so headshots are an absolute must. In fact, I witnessed one bird take a shot to the head from a .22 condor and somehow not die instantly. I had to give it the coup d' grace myself.

Overall Im pretty pleased with the way my rig performed: once I got the site zeroed properly I was consistently able to connect with headshots, offhand and from unusual stances supporting on trees and such. The .177 cpl was probably smaller than optimal, but with good placement the birds went right down. However I must say it seems like every time I shoot it I have to adjust the hawke airmax ev scope. (Yes, I made sure the screws were tight. No, the mount isn't moving).

It's good performance notwithstanding, I don't know that the hw97 is the BEST gun for this application. Given how many shots we were taking, a repeater would have been nice. Also, I was little bummed when I saw that I had scratched the gorgeous stock up a little bit on trees and such. This beautiful springer might just be too pretty for bird-poo island. No gripe against the gun. I got it to do field target after all.

For next time though I've got my eye on a compact, powerful, bullpup repeater in .22 with a synthetic stock. Perhaps a Kalibrgun Colibri. Or maybe a FX Wildcat when it comes out. Decisions, decisions.

Anyway, at the end of the day we totaled about 500 dead cormorants. The ministry people collected all the bodies they could find, took samples and then buried them. The boat I was in ran aground and was swamped on the way back, but overall it was a solid day.

[Caiman11]

Forgot the pics.

[dk1677]

Nice shooting Rob!

[longislandhunter]

Sounds like an interesting hunt.  Good shooting and nice pics. 

Jeff

[nappyman]

Man oh man dumb pest and target rich, cant ask for more than that👌 thanks for sharing 😎

[nervoustrigger]

Wow, that looks like a big stack of fun!

So just how does a bird become so prolific with such an utter disregard for self preservation?

[Oscar M.]

Yes, thanks for the story and photos. OM

[daytime dave]

Nice shooting Rob. 

[Sandspike]

The only good Cormorant aka C-rat is a dead C-rat. IMHO

[gamo2hammerli]

Good shooting, you and the other airgunners represented the airgun community.

[topwaterjim]

Nice shooting

[rudd013]

Great story awesome pics thanks.

[longhunter]

The only good Cormorant aka C-rat is a dead C-rat. IMHO

agreed. same thing needs to be done in this country.

[Sandspike]

The only good Cormorant aka C-rat is a dead C-rat. IMHO

agreed. same thing needs to be done in this country.

Yes, but because they migrate, they get protected status.