NATUREEL #07: Fishing competition at Lake Inverell

I've been photographing interactions between Australasian Darters and Little Black Cormorants at Lake Inverell and have drawn the following conclusions from my observations: (a) Australasian Darters are the superior catchers of Crucian Carp, spearing the fish with their dagger bills; and (b) Little Black Cormorants are 'parasitic' because they loiter where darters are hunting and harass darters that surface with fish in their bills. I've seen 1-3 cormorants at a time stealing fish from darters.

The darters get frustrated and retaliate by chasing the cormorants and flapping their wings, throwing up curtains of spray. The darters have learned that there's no time to waste when surfacing with a fish; it must be swallowed immediately to avoid the predations of the cormorants. Catching the larger carp is disadvantageous to the darters. The bigger fish are harder to handle quickly, giving cormorants time to get a slice of the action. I feel sorry for the hard-working darters!

I shot the images with an Olympus EM-1 Mk2 and low-speed ProCapture mode (18fps) plus the 150-400mm f4.5 TC1.25X lens...because I forgot to bring my OM-1 body on the trip. Old age!

The soundtrack is 'Dream garden' licensed from smartsound.com and composed by Timothy James Fagan.