My parents home is on Lake Ontario in Mississauga -- an area known as Port Credit. Throughout the 80's, on summer evenings as the sun began to set, you could hear the rude "Whock" of black crowned night herons as they flew overhead to their feeding grounds. In the early 80's, it would be perhaps 5 or 6 an evening but towards the end of the 80's, it would be large flocks of them.
Then, I went away for school...and when I returned home in the early 90's, I was pleased to see a new bird on my parents' little man made bay (they live near a spit). It was black and looked similar to a loon in silhouette. They dove for long periods of time like loons....my Peterson's told me they were double crested cormorants. They were novel and a pleasure to watch. I welcomed them.
We no longer see black crowned night herons at my parents' home. In fact, we haven't seen them for a decade. The cormorants grow with each year and are no longer exciting to watch. They will never have the beauty that the black crowned night herons had.
