Open the Cormorant Report from the Hub, confirm the count, select activity (feeding, loafing, flying, roosting, etc.), add a photo and a location, submit. The data feeds the national predation evidence base and supports A06 licence applications for affected fisheries.
Cormorants are the single most contentious predator on UK freshwaters. Individual club records rarely carry weight with Natural England, because they're anecdotal and don't aggregate. The Hydroscape platform changes that — every cormorant sighting, photographed and GPS-tagged, joins a national dataset that regulators, rivers trusts, and fishery managers can actually use.
If your club is likely to need an A06 licence (the lethal control licence) at some point, every cormorant sighting logged by a member now is one piece of evidence on file for that future application.
- Open the Cormorant Report — the red card on the Hub
- Count. How many birds. The form defaults to a numeric input.
- Activity — tick one or more boxes for what the birds were doing:
- Feeding
- Loafing / resting
- Flying
- Roosting
- Other (with notes)
- Date and time. Defaults to now — edit if you're logging something from earlier in the day.
- Location — postcode search drops a rough pin, then what3words gives the exact spot. Why what3words?
- Photo evidence. Mandatory. Even one distant bird in frame is better than no photo — it's the chain-of-custody that makes the record defensible.
- Notes — anything distinctive: direction of flight, specific tree or bank, what the birds did after you stopped watching, whether any fish were taken.
- Submit.
After submitting, you'll see options for two related tools on the success screen:
- HydroDeter — log a non-lethal deterrent action if you're a fishery manager or bailiff. Builds the habituation evidence needed for A06 applications. How it works
- Roost Survey — structured overnight roost count. Invite-only (PIN access). More about this
Both are reached from inside the Cormorant Report, not from the main hub, because they're more specialised and not everyone needs them.
- Count the whole flock, not just the obvious ones. Cormorants are often further out than they first appear.
- Note fresh droppings. White streaks on rocks, branches, or jetties indicate regular use even when no birds are present.
- Photograph the habitat, not just the bird. A photo of the water body with birds visible is more useful than a tight crop of a single bird.
- Repeat sightings matter. If you see cormorants at the same stretch three Saturdays in a row, log it three times — the pattern is the point.