Coots

Coot season is in full swing! The park abounds with black shmoo-shaped birds with white faces and funny feet.

©Dan Dzurisin: Spooked American Coots

They are always alert to feeding opportunities, and bring all their friends along if they think you might have food to offer. I always explain that I don't feed people, but there are so many of them that there are always a few who haven't heard the news and... hope springs eternal!

In general, I don't like coots: there are too many of them and they're too common and I don't like being mobbed. There are also a lot of injured birds, probably the result of getting tangled in fishing line. A photographer friend agrees that they're too common to be interesting, but they serve a purpose: they make good prey for more-interesting raptors, and he's gotten good pictures that way.

The thing I like best about coots is their feet. Rather than having webbed feet like ducks or geese, they have webbed toes that that look like the seed pods from the mimosa trees I grew up with.

              ©Howard Ignatius: Dancing at Lake Lopez #3

I also like the way they run-fly. They almost never get more than a foot or two off the ground or water, and so they can use their feet to help propel them. It's especially fun to watch them running on water (usually hustling to get to somebody feeding them!) because they always coast the last few feet.

But they must be able to fly, since they aren't here all of the year, and I don't believe in spontaneous generation. I'll try to watch for flocks of funny birds swarming in migration.