July Visitor

On July 2 a strange wild male coot appeared in the marina. I thought Beaky Coot was hallucinating, and his calls and attitude were simply a symptom of his miserable lonely ordeal that he must endure every summer when his mate is gone.

But no, I saw the strange bird too. It was extremely wild and wary, so I was unable to get closer than about fifty yards to take a picture. Unfortunately it was a male, and Beaky went to work right away and chased the intruder out of his territory. The new coot was gone the next day.

There has never been a coot here in summer, except for Beaky the crippled coot. How this wild bird got here, and where he went certainly would make an amazing story, if I knew what it was.

Chollas Lake

I was told that there were baby coots at Chollas Lake in San Diego. This lake was first built in 1901 as part of the city water system, but was turned over to the parks and recreation department in 1966. Project Wildlife volunteers told me that the lake was infested with eye flukes that blind the birds there, so that they never release waterfowl at that lake. Before this month, I had never visited this lake.

I didn't see any injured, crippled, or sick birds there. In fact I had the impression that Chollas Reservoir is much more closely managed than Lake Murray which is operated by the water department. It's a beautiful park where you can see and photograph a variety of animals.

A female coot with two chicks is shown above, and a juvenile coot is shown at right. A young California ground squirrel, Otospermophilus beecheyi, is shown below. There is a large healthy breeding population of squirrels, and no Bromadiolone poison bait boxes (as in Port of San Diego parks) were seen.

July 4, 2008

Claiming budgetary reductions, the city was unable to deploy the uniformed police officers necesary to barricade the streets and prevent access to the two marinas, three city parks, and the boat ramp on the morning of this Independence Day holiday.

Consequently, they were forced to cancel the traditional Fourth of July fireworks display.

Beaky quickly went to work on his nest, gathering sticks, weeds, and other trash to arrange on the Jetdock plastic float.

He was unaffected by the holiday traffic, and spared the terror of the fireworks display.

He found several sticks of the proper size, and an attractive piece of paper to add to his nest.

These efforts usually only last a few days or a week every July Fourth Holiday. He returns to tinker with his nest from time to time, but does not roost there at night. Usually the female coot would stay on the nest at night and lay her eggs in the early morning hours shortly after midnight.

In the month of July, Beaky will crow at the border of his territory. Also he will crow at any loud continuous noise like a helicopter or motorcycle passing. Helicopter.wav sound file link is an example.

Beaky

After eating a few meals, Beaky nods, blinks, and falls asleep on the end of the dock. He has a full gut, warm weather, and someone to watch for predators. Life is good. He is the perfect picture of innocence in a very uncertain world.

Sometimes a worm escapes into a crack, making an unworkable problem for the coot. I keep a short piece of wire handy to fish out the worm, but Beaky may not want the worm after this.

Later in the month, he doesn't crow and seems to lose interest in his nest, but will squawk at any loud noise. Squawk.wav is an example of a single "squawk".

At the very end of the month, Beaky becomes nervous and shy, and doesn't squawk or crow. Coots are even more helpless than usual when their wing feathers are shed during molting. On the last day of July, I can't really see if he has lost all his flight feathers, and he is not receptive to feather examination at this time of the month.

Juveniles

Here are more pictures of the juvenile coots. I have never seen pictures of coots of this age before. If these are some other kind of bird, I can't think of what they would be.

All coots like to stretch their wings like this.

This coot was constantly making a high pitched whistling cry unlike any other coot calls.

This chick at right is a bit younger than the one shown in the two previous images.

Tarsal Color

The color of coots' feet can be used as an indication of the bird's age. First year coots can be easily recognized by light gray/green colors. Over a period of four years the color is supposed to change to yellow and orange.

This July, Beaky Coot's toes seem to be an unusually bright yellow. Also, his frontal shield remains well swollen indicating good health in the breeding season.

Coot Tarsal Color This research cites earlier studies and also speculates at seasonal color changes. Brighter colors may be an advantage to older males to indicate dominance in the mating season.

This study notes that tarsal colors fade after the breeding season, and colors should only be used to determine age while the birds are breeding.

This summer, the coot has been in excellent health, probably resulting in the bright color.

Big Picture:

Click on the picture at right to enlarge. This is another happy and healthy bird at Chollas Lake.

The Anser cygnoides or Brown African Goose is a large domestic goose raised primarily for meat. Feathersite.com describes African geese. Be sure to check out the links from this site.