Coot Parade

 

Tammy and I try to take a quick trip to various parts of Sweet Marsh near Tripoli on a fairly regular basis.  We don't often get out and walk when we're there partly because that's not always the point of the visit.  Sometimes it's a time to just decompress away from work (remember, Rob works at home / at the farm).  Sometimes, we just want to sit and talk through some things while observing nature.  Sometimes the wind is howling and we really don't feel like standing in it but we still want to look at the water, the birds and the trees.  And almost all of the time, it is a very quick break - not long enough to dedicate ourselves to a "walk there again."

So, we decided we could use just such a break this past Friday.  And, of course, we didn't bring the camera.

This brings me to an admission.  It is ok to have cameras on our phones for just such an occasion.  I still reside in the camp that a phone is supposed to be a phone, so this is a grudging admission from me.  I guess there are times when a very select set of additional tools might be ok on these things.

Of course, the phone camera is no match for the camera we have when it comes to quality images.  But, it served to capture the process of a flock of American Coots running/flying on the water.

Yes, you heard me right.  American Coots run on water, using their wings to assist in that motion by lifting themselves up just enough to accomplish this odd task.  If you look at the pictures, you see the splashes where the feet were hitting the water.

Coots do not have webbed feet, but they do have skin flaps on each toe that serve a similar purpose, helping them to be propel themselves on the water.  When it comes to flying, however, they often require a bit of a "running start" to get into the air.  So we were witnessing their take-off ritual.  In this case, they didn't bother to take full flight because they just wanted to get to another bit of water more quickly than swimming was going to take them.  I observed a few of them gliding just over the water for a while before landing on the water's surface.  But many of them just simply ran on the water a ways and settled back down to float away at a more leisurely pace.

We were able to catch some of them on video while in the act of moving from swimming to running/flying on the water.  Feel free to watch the video above if you want to see it.

The Coots were, apparently, not fond of our observing them.  Though we were able to watch for a while until they decided they needed to move past us.  These birds will do shallow dives to get food (plants).  And, like our chickens and turkeys, if one particular bird should surface with something good, other nearby birds will often attempt to encourage the successful forager to "share."  

I don't why it still surprises me a little to observe some of the flock behavior in our poultry being exhibited by wild birds.  Perhaps "surprise" is the wrong word here because I have witnessed such things many times.  Maybe it is simply the fact that we interact with our poultry on a daily basis, so it may seem strange to see similar behaviors in birds that we don't see often.  After all, it was "special" to see a larger flock of a different bird. So, maybe it was jarring to then see something that was so familiar at the same time?

We estimated this flock at a few hundred birds, though it is possible we underestimated their numbers a fair bit.  After all, they didn't really let us get a great view of them before they started exiting stage left.  We tried to tell them we were just walking by, but they wanted to hear nothing of it.

Kip Ladage has a nice photo of a single American Coot (how'd he get ONE to pose for him?) in his April 5, 2023 comments if you want to see a nice image.

I suspect we'll try to go back to the marsh for another chance at the Coots with the better camera.  Except, we know how this will go.  There will be no Coots there because there is an early warning system.

*** warning, Rob and Tammy remembered the camera!  Everyone hide! ***

Have a good day everyone!