Abstract. Counts were made of cormorants, Phalacrocorax carbo (L.), feeding on the River Bush. County Antrim. Northern Ireland during the post‐dawn period on three occasions. Two of the counts during May 1986 indicated that up to 264 birds may have been feeding at least once per day throughout the catchment during the salmon, Salmo salar L., smolt run. The number of feeding birds had dropped to an estimated 61 by the time of the third count on 1 July 1986. Stomach samples from shot birds showed that upstream feeding was concentrated on wild smolts and brown trout. Salmo trutta L. However, cormorant predalion downstream from the salmon hatchery at Bushmills was restricted solely to hatchery smolts. Estimates of the total daily predation rates were calculated at 653–1214 wild smolts. 107–231 hatchery smolts and 422–785 brown trout. The possible impact of this level of predation on the salmonid stocks of the river was assessed.