On an early April morning, a friend and I climbed a dune wall to get to the beach at Pea Island NWR, not expecting much. As we crested the dune we saw at least 100,000 thousand Double-Crested Cormorants lining the beach, literally as far as the eye could see down the barrier island to our south. Thousands more cormorants and gulls were already in the surf, fishing.

A hundred thousand DC Cormorants (at least), lining the beach at Pea Island NWR, as far as the eye could see, on the Outer Banks, on an early April morning, 2019. a.co/d/6rKgbMQ
🧪🌿🌎🐡🪶 #wildlife #scicomm #sciviz #wildlifephoto #visualscicomm #sciviz #scicomm #DCCormorants #PeaIslandNWR #Pea Island