Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 31, 2008 Page: 19 of 20
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Port Aransas South Jetty
IslandLife
Thursday, July 31,2008 7B
Dedicated binders say: Give a hoot -- check out a coot
American coots are common marsh up and gets them looking at things,
birdsandmostpeopledon’tgiveahoot noticing things, and really “seeing”
about a coot. Even in the bird world things.
they don’t get a lot of attention, but Coot feet are remarkable, and tome
I like all birds and I like to watch all -- beautiful. They are huge, yellow-
birds, and some coot behavior recently green in color, and with every scale
got my attention. edged in black, they stand out in sharp
Coots are plentiful and easy to see contrast if they are in view. American
most of the year, and I find that I always coots have lobed toes - unique in their
end up teaching something about coots, family (Rallidae) and these toes usually
I am especially fond of coot feet and I rate exclamations from viewers. All
usually teach something about their feet the other birds in their family (rails
to kids and beginning birders because, and gallinules) have long, slender
first of all, their feet are interesting to toes. OK, now that we’ve established
look at, and secondly, it opens people some credibility for the coot being a
at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding
Center last Wednesday, when we no-
ticed an American coot up on his toes,
“screaming” across the water. Now
coots are not graceful birds, so you can
picture a fat chicken “walking on the
water” -fast, and not be too far off.
It is not a particularly pretty image,
but it certainly get’s your attention.
Now this mad fellow shot across the
water toward one of two coots that
were about six feet apart. He must
have traveled a hundred feet or so in
five or six seconds and reached his
to preen. Taking his time he gazed shoulder.
around to see if anyone had noticed his It took both of us awhile to take all
prowess and then continued preening, that in and process it. I jotted down
We were both incredulous. I truly don’t some notes. I left my friend there and
know how much time elapsed but my walked back down the boardwalk. .
heart rate had time to slow down; we Sometime later, I heard this unusual
were sure it was over by now, and it sloshing sound; a quick, back-and-
- had already happened. forth churning of water. I turned
Then the “victorious coot” jumped quickly to see an American coot stand-
down and slowly swam away. We ing on his tail, somehow bouncing up
stared at the water and nothing hap- and down, like a Duracell battery ad
pened! We stared at each other and on TV! It was amazing, I think this
nothing happened! Then slowly, was the same “victorious coot”, and
surely slower than Lazarus, aheadrose he had just “pushed” another offend^
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target so quickly that the victim had from the “dead”. Only just above the ing neighbor away. Evidently, he was
bird worthy of some interest, let’s get little time to flee. Next, the mad coot surface did the head slowly material- putting a few expletives on the end of
into the story. jumped on top of the bad coot and ize. The bill was open (presumably his warning!
Recently I noticed two examples of pushed him into the silt before we catching a much-needed breath), and Keep your eyes open and go bird.
American coot behavior that were very could open our mouths in disbelief, only then did the bird slowly emerge. Birding enthusiasts Nan Dietert
interesting. Now, during the breeding The silt is very deep at the Birding The head was fairly clean, but the body and Lyndon Holcomb are report-
season most birds are pretty touchy Center and the bird was completely was just covered in mucky silt, only a ing on local and area birding. To
about the conduct and whereabouts of buried! He struggled once and got little of it trying to slide off. He then report a sighting, contact them at
theirneighbors, and American coots are his head just above the water’s surface, swam quietly away, looking over his lyndonholcomb@yahoo.com.
territorially aggressive all year long but he was immediately pecked into
anyway, so I’m not sure whether this submission. We saw a few bubbles
coot’s behavior was related to territory and then nothing,
or mate protection, but he was one very “He’s going to kill him” - we both
mad coot. screamed. The triumphant coot ad-
Afriend and I were on the boardwalk justed his footing a little and then began
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Judson, Mary Henkel. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 31, 2008, newspaper, July 31, 2008; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth496571/m1/19/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.