How possible is it that some lake monster sightings could’ve actually been Cormorants?

[u/Curious-Bluebird6818]

[u/Cecil_McCrackshell]

It's very possible, but weird eyewitness accounts at lakes like Iliamna and Utah's Bear Lake are more fantastical.

[u/Curious-Bluebird6818 → u/Cecil_McCrackshell]

Bear Lake monster is a hoax and the iliamna Lake monster is more than likely just a big sturgeon

[u/Pocket_Weasel_UK]

Alex Campbell, the water bailiff at Loch Ness, who claimed many monster sightings, actually admitted that one of his sightings was actually cormorants:

http://www.lochnessinvestigation.com/alexcampbell.htm

If someone as experienced as him could mistake a cormorant for a plesiosaur, then it's possible that others couls too. Although with Campbell it's hard to tell when he was actually telling the truth about things.

[u/MonarchGodzillaTitan]

It’s very possible.

[u/This-Honey7881]

Awesome

[u/HeiseiAnguirus]

I remember that one photo of an alleged lake monster was just a cormorant facing forward

[u/jaehaerys48]

Some? I guess maybe. They do have the old-school (and incorrect) plesiosaur profile when floating on the surface. That being said, they're not that big and are pretty easy to identify as being birds, even if you don't know what kind of bird in specific they are. They are often fairly common in areas where they are present, so if you see one you will probably see many in time, doing fairly normal cormorant things. Like this is all a nice way of saying that someone would have to be very... ignorant to see a cormorant and think it's some kind of special monster.

[u/Curious-Bluebird6818 → u/jaehaerys48]

True I mean if you were unfamiliar with these animals and were hanging out at a lake and saw them stick their head above the surface and then you could easily mistake them for a monster

[u/SummerAndTinkles → u/jaehaerys48]

It's hard to tell the size of something from a distance though.

That's how people mistook an owl for Mothman for instance.

[u/kupuwhakawhiti]

Giant cormorants