Who else has seen them?

oldsalt · Post by **oldsalt** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 4:41 pm

While diving the Mukilteo fuel pier yesterday, I was hanging about 10 ft off the bottom observing a school of tubesnouts swimming below me when a larger shape darted below me startling me and scattering the fish. After a "What the..." moment, I realized it was a cormorant doing what cormorants do. The tubesnouts spread in a pattern reminding me of the vector diagrams of force fields in physics books. On my swim back to the T-dock, I saw another diving bird underwater - a goldeneye. I seldom see birds underwater and wonder who else sees them. I have seen murres feeding on sandlance and "flying" underwater since they swim with their wings. My "oldest" dive buddy, Dale Pratt, saw a kingfisher at 60' and I heard a radio show this week that said the longtail duck can dive to 200 ft. Are their any other underwater birdwatchers out there? Any have pictures to post? Let's hear your stories.
-Curt

cardiver · Post by **cardiver** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 4:44 pm

oldsalt wrote:While diving the Mukilteo fuel pier yesterday, I was hanging about 10 ft off the bottom observing a school of tubesnouts swimming below me when a larger shape darted below me startling me and scattering the fish. After a "What the..." moment, I realized it was a cormorant doing what cormorants do. The tubesnouts spread in a pattern reminding me of the vector diagrams of force fields in physics books. On my swim back to the T-dock, I saw a another diving bird underwater - a goldeneye. I seldom see birds underwater and wonder who else sees them. I have seen murres feeding on sandlance and "flying" underwater since they swim with their wings. My "oldest" dive buddy, Dale Pratt, saw a kingfisher at 60' and I heard a radio show this week that said the longtail duck can dive to 200 ft. Are their any other underwater birdwatchers out there? Any have pictures to post? Let's hear your stories.
-Curt

I'm not sure on the type of bird, but I saw a few dive bombing the 60-70' range at Redondo a couple of weeks ago.

Rockfish · Post by **Rockfish** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 5:04 pm

I've seen birds diving on Possession Ferry some even as deep as the deck.

Mike

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:26 pm

I had a cormorant swim past me at around 60' at the old Edmonds oil dock a few years ago. That was pretty cool.

Grateful Diver · Post by **Grateful Diver** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:31 pm

I saw several birds"fly" past me in the shallows at Harper Ferry a few years back.

Seen them a few times at Edmonds Underwater Park ... don't know what kind they were.

Even saw one at the I-beams once ... I think it was probably a cormorant.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:59 pm

I've seen them a few times at the dry dock and the pontoon at Edmonds

Mongo · Post by **Mongo** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:06 pm

I saw a bird 40 FSW at Redondo. Freaked me out at first.

fmerkel · Post by **fmerkel** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 9:44 pm

Saw a Cormorant at 90' at the N. side of the old Edmonds Oil dock. My wife and I looked at each other as it swam by (flapped it's wings)and you could see we both were wondering what THAT was! Then it came back for another pass giving us a good look and seemed to be checking us out. That confirmed we weren't terminally narc'ed.
Prior to that I had only had seen some unidentified birds doing quick dives in fairly shallow water a couple of times. Never seen another deep diving bird. One diver I know has seen birds at 160' in CA diving.

LCF · Post by **LCF** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 6:46 pm

I've seen cormorants at Edmonds, and Peter took some nice photos of a diving duck at Edmonds one day.

But the most amazing experience I've had was on the oil rigs in Southern California, where we were swimming around at 77 feet when a large, black object went whizzing by . . . it was a cormorant, and it was in no hurry to get back to the surface!

ljjames · Post by **ljjames** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 1:16 pm

100' rock, too... they'd follow the divers bubbles down...

Gooch · Post by **Gooch** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 8:51 am

I've seen twice now merganser ducks diving pretty deep at Clear Lake. One time, they were quite close to me- it was very cool to see their bright colors as they tried to catch a snack.

Furnari · Post by **Furnari** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 8:08 pm

I've seen Goldeneyes in Clear Lake (OR) and a watched a Cormorant terrorize a herd of juvie rockfish in Monterey- both experiences were pretty neat.

Norris · Post by **Norris** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:40 am

Furnari wrote:I've seen Goldeneyes in Clear Lake (OR) and a watched a Cormorant terrorize a herd of juvie rockfish in Monterey- both experiences were pretty neat.

I call shenanigans, I hear that he can only dive 5-10 feet tops

Northwest Dive Club