September 1, 2008
I don't remember, but this bird with the broken wing was around at least three or four years ago before I noticed that he was following me everywhere to get a small bit of food. I made it my policy that he wouldn't get fed unless he recognized me and took food from my hand. He seemed to want to get up out of the water in the worst way, so I made a small step on the back of the boat.
Beaky the Coot has a mate! She follows him everywhere and they are
inseparable. She is afraid of me, but quickly learns to recognize me,
and will take food from my hand if Beaky is nearby. Both coots together
are braver now, and come up on the dock to forage if I am working
there. The picture shows the bowing, billing, and nibbling
behavior indicative of a mated pair.
From looking at pictures that show the color of her feet, I now believe that she was his original mate and about the same age. He has not been as close to any of the subsequent female mates since her. At times he seems bitter and vindictive toward new females.
It is time to migrate. Both coots are eating and drinking more than usual, and are both gone the second week in March. The next day, Beaky returns, unable to fly with his broken wing. All the other coots are gone.
Beaky is less active and eating very little. He holds up his left foot which seems discolored and swollen. He still drinks, so I gave him antibiotics in his drinking water. After eight days, he seems better, and starts to recover. Months later, a small lump on his left foot still seems to bother him at times, however.
Beaky has been struggling to fly every day and one day, I watched him fly by the back of the boat, land on the water, and paddle back to me. It's too late to migrate now, and he probably can't fly too far anyway.
Beaky has given up on flying now, and in fact, can't even get up on
the boat. He is shedding feathers every time he tries to use his wings.
Coots molt in late July, and by August he seems to have a new coat of
feathers, and can get around
much better. He is eating more,
and building up fat and feathers for the winter.
It's time for the other coots to return from their summer nesting,
but only a few isolated stragglers come and go. Beaky's mate has not
returned. He has met at least two new single female coots, but nothing takes
.
Otherwise, he spends the rest of the year patrolling his territory and
chasing away any other male coots, or mated pairs.
Sometimes he seems confused by the rain, but has made it through the remarkable cold weather this winter with no problems. His wings seem to be getting stronger and only needs one step to flap his way up on the boat.
On a windy and rainy morning Beaky the Coot was standing next to me in the back of the boat when he slipped and fell into the cockpit. Without thinking, I reached out and tried to catch him as I would any fallen item on the boat. As I fumbled, I found he didn't want to be caught. In fact, he was terrified and probably thought he would be my next meal. For a couple of weeks after that, he was afraid of me, and wouldn't come on the boat. However, he still wanted to be fed, and would follow me around and take food from my hand as usual. Perhaps he resolved this moral dilemma by blaming the boat. Now, three weeks later, I was able to tempt him to climb back up on the boat for some oats. He is very cautious about checking the part of the boat where he fell, to make sure the monster that grabbed him is not there.
This is a reminder that the coot is a wild animal, not a domestic pet, and carries with him all the experiences and limitations of his kind. He therefore, deserves to be treated with respect.
The several migrant coots have become a source of consternation for Beaky the coot. When they stay outside his territory, he squawks furiously when he sees me feed them. Late in the month three of them ventured inside his territory and were cornered inside the docks. He was forced to fight two of them in coot fashion, grasping the other bird by the neck feathers and slapping it with his feet to hold it under water. They both escaped by swimming away under water. One female remained, and Beaky started courting her by bowing his head. She seemed to respond, but after an hour, she wandered away.
The migrant coots gave an important insight into coot mentality. Perfectly wild animals don't expect other animals to come along and feed them. The coots had a problem figuring out how to get a cracker from me. The small friendly female would rush up to me and not know what to do. She would look around on the ground, and not find the cracker I held in my hand. Finally, I forced it into her face and she took it. Now, she knew how to get the food, and would get fed regularly while the other coots did not. They were furious, hopping around and squawking, not knowing what to do. For a while two aggressive males tried attacking me and biting my hand as hard as they could to get the cracker. This certainly made sense to them since they would usually fight for food.
Beaky was eventually able to separate a new mate from a transient pair of coots. It seemed unusual that he would tolerate the enemy coots near the boat, but he soon went to work and chased the male away. She apparently liked him and stayed for about two weeks. Beaky appears bitter and vindictive, attacking his new mate whenever she ignores him or turns to me for food. She willingly "nibbles" his head, but he never made any effort to please her. Now in April, she is gone, along with all the other migratory waterfowl. Beaky is sick again, and eating very little, but still hangs around me and shows no inclination to fly or try to migrate.
Only two male coots remain to pester Beaky around the back of the boat. He must chase them away when they come for food. Before the last week in April, they are gone. Beaky suffered from a minor illness for a few weeks and recovered the last week in April. With fewer other birds around, he is able to come up on the boat every day to eat corn and oats. The worm ranch in full production now, so that he gets a handful of worms every morning.
This is unrelated to Beaky the Coot, but I have come to some conclusions after my winter observations of the wild migratory coots. Many migratory coots are organized into small "tribes" of about a dozen members that forage and travel together. While foraging they may be spread over a large area of fifty yards or more but share the same taste in food and foraging skill. They may stay for a day or as long as several months. When they are gone they may be suddenly replaced by another tribe of similar but different coots. It took a day for me to notice not only that a few specific individuals were missing, but that all the new coots were, in fact, different coots. They didn't recognize me either! It seems to me that coots vary as individuals, but small groups of them travel together sharing the same taste and abilities unique and different from other groups of coots.
The coot has two different hailing calls. The common squawk call is used when the coot has someone in sight. The coot will occasionally use this call or an abbreviated "click" version of it when he sees me and wants to be fed. The remarkable "coo-wah" call is used when the coot is trying to find someone who should be there, but is not in sight. I seldom hear this call, but it was unmistakable when I had stayed on the boat overnight on Independence Day weekend and did not get up early enough for the coot to find me. I expect the coot has used this call many times in the past but I was never there to hear it.
The coot completed molting and now has a new coat of feathers.
About the second week in August, someone badly frightened the coot near my boat when I was gone. Now he is afraid to come up on the boat and is suspicious of me when approaching first thing in the morning. I expect that the diver that cleans the bottom of the boat may have startled him since that is about the time the diver was there.
Coots are quite good at expressing their feelings about something nearby, but it is difficult for him to express an abstract concept on something that varies in time or distance. He will worry about this for only a few weeks, but will probably never be comfortable again. In the past he seemed to enjoy standing on the back of the boat to view his territory for hours at a time, but now knows that it is a dangerous place.
The coot is still afraid to come up on the boat but now comes up on the steps. He has improved in his use of his feet to hop down steps so that he is able to do this routinely. Experiments with a coot decoy show that the coot does not recognize the decoy as being real, but responds to a mirror as if it were another coot.
Beaky the dominant male coot was defeated in battle by another large male coot and driven from his territory. Ten days later the new coot is gone and Beaky returns to his territory when I stop feeding birds there. At the end of the month a new female coot is with Beaky and they appear to be bonding as mates. She is well trained and docile.
Beaky the Coot has returned to climbing onto the boat after a three month absence. The relationship with a new mate continues and she expresses herself with a variety of displays and calls. She uses the danger display on intruders and stamps her foot on the dock at them. Both she and Beaky use the dabbling display as a greeting when separated.
The water level at Lake Murray has been reduced for construction on the dam. Two or three hundred coots there have been forced away from their normal feeding and nesting areas.
Little has changed at Lake Murray except that the coots there have changed from foraging for food in the bushes to begging food from people. I found pairs of coots defending territory at the north end of the lake where there are good nesting spots with reeds and growing vegetation. They are probably maintaining normal territory adequate for their support, while the other coots in small flocks are driven out on the lake into neutral territory.
The female pet coot was gone on migration on schedule the 16th of March as expected. Beaky is not worried, and continues on alone patrolling his territory. Different coots are still at the nearby park, but are probably recent travelers on spring migration. The coots along the sidewalk are still here, but many of them may be different coots. One female remains here at the beginning of April 2006.
The starving coots are gone from Lake Murray and the population there is limited to several local mated pairs of coots. The previously starving coots were winter migrants. Many of the coots suffered from an eye disease caused by parasites in the water. There is no indication of starvation or disease in the local coots. Beaky the Coot wanders the marina aimlessly with a remarkable lack of any kind of birds.
The coot is not sick this spring but seems to be taking the solitude harder than usual for spring migration. He disappeared for a week and I was unable to find him, but it appears that he never left the marina. He is eating little, but seems to do better when I arrive at the marina at sunrise to greet him. He used an unusual wing flapping display on a pair of mallards that appeared unexpectedly on the dock. I am feeding him meal worms and using a liquid vitamin supplement in his drinking water to prepare for the molt coming next month.
The coot seems healthier and is eating more at the end of June. I am absent from the marina for a few days at a time, and he is foraging with a small family of juvenile ducks that are about his size.
The coot was extremely excited about finding a perfect nest site and continued to call me until I went over to look at it. He was gathering sticks, twigs, and trash under the stern of a dinghy on a plastic float. After a week he gave up on the nest.
The coot struggles through molting helped by worms and vitamins. A new type of meal worm called super worms does not make a good protein diet supplement because of bad taste.
Beaky the Coot continues to be nervous and wary after loss of his wing feathers. He had the same problem last year. A new female arrived on the last day of September but she seems to have wandered away.
The new female is named "Missy", and quickly establishes her position as Beaky's new mate.
She is slow to communicate, but has a complete vocabulary. She quickly learns about getting food from the dishes on the dock, and becomes more easily handled and hand fed.
Missy Coot has become very expressive, and will cluck, slap her foot, and fluff up her feathers at Beaky Coot. This brings questions about whether these displays are instinctive or learned. Beaky appears weak, but recovers quickly. Seagulls are an increasing hazard for the coots. The first cold weather has arrived the last day in November.
Coots from last year have returned this winter. Marvin and Beaky Coot's mate from last year are back. I was unable to help an injured coot with a broken wing that came through the marina. Several coots were killed by cars on Marina Parkway nearby. Both government and private animal control and rescue agencies are useless to help this problem. Finally the birds themselves seem to have become aware of the danger and run away from cars.
I constructed a nest box for the coots. Marvin joined with a new female to take control of new territory, driving away all the more dominant male migrants. Later, they returned to be fed by the parking lot. More returnees arrived from last year. Beaky Coot imitated Missy Coot's "cluck-cluck" display. Coots were killed on Marina Parkway in greater numbers.
Coots no longer venture into the street on Marina Parkway to be killed by cars. I decided not to join Project Wildlife because of their inability to communicate with the public, and poor treatment of volunteers. Missy Coot is getting some yellow color on her upper beak. The experimental nest attached to the boat was carried away by weather and the coots seem to prefer the old nest on a Jetski platform on the opposite dock.
Missy Coot is early to leave for migration on March 11. She was always eager and impatient. Beaky Coot had repeatedly called her over to his nest with lots of squawking and squabbling. She tried to sit on his nest for two days, but the Jet-ski platform wouldn't work. By the end of March there are still four wild coots remaining at the marina and twenty or thirty coots at the park. The water level has been restored at Lake Murray and the coots there are much happier this spring.
All the coots are gone on spring migration except Beaky Coot. He remains in excellent health. He is eating less and is more relaxed as he paddles around his lonely empty territory.
Beaky Coot was desperate to fly away on migration, but has been unable to get off the water more than a few inches. He became depressed, refusing to eat for several days at a time. He uses his "flapping" display on ducks showing his excitement at seeing them. At the end of May he is returning to normal.
Beaky Coot is eating small but normal amounts of food and appears every morning at 5:45 to eat. I used an automatic pet feeder to dispense dishes of oats over a three day period when I am away. In the last days of June, Beaky Coot is obsessed with his nest on an opposite dock. He wakes up in the morning, calling for his mate and looking for his nest, but they both are gone.
Beaky Coot starts the month with a panic of furious nest building activity only to be caught up in the coots' annual molt. He started shedding feathers in mid July and has lost almost all his wing flight feathers by the end of July.
Little has changed in August. Beaky Coot continued to regrow his feathers, and has almost completely recovered from molting.
Missy Coot returned very early on fall migration on September 8. She is very hungry and somewhat modest and demure compared to her first arrival last September 30. The yellow coloring starting to show on her beak from last spring is gone now. This year she is showing her white tail coverts in an unusual change in her feathers.
New coots arrive every day, in large and small flocks and as individuals or mated pairs. One male decided to stay at the marina and is named Freddie. Missy is nervous about eating food from the dock that belongs to Beaky. Her feathers were in disarray for a few weeks, but I could find no evidence of lice or mites. She now seems to have recovered. Huge fires in October put a scum of ash on the water but it didn't seem to affect the birds.
The new arrival named Freddie is the first returnee from last winter. Two other male returnees and a new female join him during the month. Marvin returns on November 23 with a female companion. A small dog prevents Beaky and Missy from eating on the boat.
December 10 brought the first ice on the docks. Every year the winter is colder and the freeze comes earlier. Southern California is in the cooling phase of a twenty or thirty year climate cycle. The new resident coots have now established their respective territories around the marina, and work to maintain them. Freddie was pecked in the head in a coot fight. Other species of waterfowl appear in the marina. The flock of migrant coots at the park have been staying out of the street, and none of them have been killed by cars.
Two coots from the park were killed in the street on Marina Parkway. One was driven into the street by dogs only to be killed by a car. Various forms of legal and political harassment appear, and several new links are posted. "DO NOT FEED" signs have no legal or biological meaning according to UPD employees. Four tame Greylag geese disappear on January 19. Marvin's face changes, and a Spotted bass frightens Beaky. Flocks of coots move around the area, and several stay to feed along the sidewalk by the parking lot.
There are more questions about the Port of San Diego as the ground squirrels have disappeared and Bromadiolone bait boxes are located around the park nearby. The mallards have started laying eggs, and more cold weather puts ice and frost on the docks. Short coot movies were made and will appear in other parts of this web page. The coots have a greater sense of urgency as migration is coming next month. Approximately one hundred coots were counted among the three Port of San Diego parks nearby.
Spring has come to San Diego, and Freddie and Mollie are gone. But, many of the coots are still here, including Marvin. Missy, the early bird, is still here on the last day of March. At least 120 coots wintered here, a considerable increase in numbers since last year.
Missy left on the last night of March, but Marvin stayed until the middle of April. The Number Two male was also here until April 25. Beaky was more tolerant of the other males and they would all come to the boat to eat. The baby sparrows fledged out by the third week in April, and only one baby Blue Heron is in the nest at Bayfront Park. Beaky is eating less, but still appears to be in good health at the end of April.
Coots at Lake Murray suffer from broken limbs and eye-fluke infestation. Beaky makes a few futile attempts to fly away, and wanders around calling for his mate. However, he remains in good health and it still eating and drinking normally, but in small amounts. A pair of gulls are able to catch fish in the marina, and make an unsuccessful attempt to build a nest.
In June a mysterious mealworm shortage threatens to limit dietary protein available for molting in July. Super worms are available however, in smaller sizes, that the coot now likes more than anything else. Pro-feda vitamin supplement is added for molting, also. The ducks have a drinking fountain. Beaky's nest is uncovered, allowing him access for his July nest building efforts. He calls to me when at his nest using the "come here" coot call.
Animals in the marina pass the Independence Day Holiday night in peace without the usual terror of the fireworks display. A stray wild male coot appears in the marina, and Beaky chases him away. Coots at Chollas Lake are happy and healthy with babies of various ages. Beaky works on his nest for a while, and remains in good health with bright yellow feet, and swollen frontal shield. Major demolition all around the marina is finished, with the constant reminder that the marina is the next to go.
Beaky Coot struggles through the molt again this month, but a few days later than usual. The blackbirds also molt, but differently. The mallards congregate in the parking lot and sidewalk, and do not bother the coot on the docks. More vegetation that sustains winter migrants is removed just days before migration. Information about pelagic birding and pictures of a Caspian tern are included with pictures of the tiny Spotted sandpiper.
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