Migration

Missy was gone on the morning of April 1. The morning before she had appeared late for breakfast and was rather shy as if something had changed. This made her three weeks late, and it seems that most other birds are also late this spring. I fed her worms every day for a few weeks before she left to give her the best possible chance for survival. Cold weather continues.

Beaky paddled around squawking for her, but he soon had other problems. Five transient male coots came around the boat (right), creating a distraction from his usual breakfast. He is afraid of them, and without Missy to help, has no chance of fighting them off.

Marvin (below, left) also stays to make a nuisance for the transient coots by attacking them when they are fed. He was gone on April 14.

Marvin returned on April 15, but was gone again on the 18th. Perhaps he couldn't decide if he wanted to continue on migration. The Number Two Male (right) was the last to leave in April. The coots are calm by the middle of April, and show none of the urgency they had a few weeks before.

Many people are able to read a bird's "facial expressions." It is fairly easy with coots because of their emotional nature, but it has taken me years to develop this ability. As reported by Gullion, the coot's head position is the key to whether a given display is friendly or hostile. The coot at right is certainly smiling.

Number Two (shown again at right) left Saturday night April 26. He stayed a month longer than most other coots.

Here he struggles to cope with the wonders and mystery of the food dish. He really doesn't understand why his foot is on the edge of the dish, or what to do about it. He looks at me for help. Beaky tolerated his presence for several days with just an occasional peck to remind him who the dish belongs to.

Even experienced coots still are fascinated with the concept of a transparent container. They look through the sides of the dish, touch it tentatively, and marvel over the novelty.

At the end of the month, Beaky is eating less and less every morning. He often becomes sick and stops eating this time of year. He still likes romain lettuce and even though it has little nutritional value, it gives him something to put in his gut. As shown in the picture at right, he also likes watermelon. I have tried other fruits, grapes. and kinds of greens and lettuce with no success.

This has been a depressing time in past summers when he comes to see me, but won't eat. He paddles around slowly and aimlessly often changing direction for no reason. Sometimes he squawks using the long coot recognition call, but there are no other coots here to answer.

More Coot Movies

Poor Marvin, the socially maladjusted coot, has difficulty eating. His kleptoparisitic, but indecisive approach to finding food is shown in the two links below.

(1) Marvin quickly runs forward to eat a cracker, but can't decide what to do:

(2) Marvin makes his stupid yapping, and tries to bite the other coots, (turn up the sound):

The Crow

American Crows and other members of the Corvidae family have a "gular pouch" under the chin, similar to pelicans. The bird shown at right is just starting to swell after two crackers. Crows use this pouch to save food for later use, or to feed their babies. Captive or tame crows may never use this pouch, since they would have no reason to save food.

The Sparrows

The female sparrow works hard to maintain her family in a palm tree by the gate. By the end of the third week in April, the babies are fledged out. They still follow their parents, fluttering their wings begging to be fed.

The Blue Herons

Only one baby heron is being fed in an Aleppo Pine tree at Chula Vista Bayfront Park. The baby is the size of a chicken, and makes a loud "clucking" noise while being fed at sunrise. The parent heron catches tiny fish in the morning darkness. You can see hundreds of newly hatched fish in the bay. This nest is in a different tree from last year where there were two chicks. The cold weather last winter may have affected them.

The Great blue heron fishing in the early mornings (below) makes a compelling picture when taken with the flash.