Coot News

Wednesday October 1, 2008

Volume 7 Issue 10

Spraying Osprey

The ospreys have been coming into the marina more often in recent years.

The ospreys always seek out the highest perch around, but nothing over here is as tall as the parking lot light fixtures that are now gone from across the street.

Port of San Diego demolition across the street removed their nesting and roost sites. Now these huge birds are here in the marina more often. These pictures might explain some of the white spots on boats.

This picture of the old osprey nest was taken in February of 2005, when two chicks appeared. I believe this was shortly after Loren Nancarrow of KGTV did a report on the new arrivals.

The palm trees are now the tallest structures around, but the fronds are not strong enough to support such a large bird. This picture by the marina office was taken at six AM just before sunrise.

The osprey eventually just slips and tumbles out of the trees and flies away.

Marina Demolition

The San Diego Log reports that the environmental impact report for the project that will cause the loss of the 900 boat slips here, will be completed in December, in spite of more than nine hundred pages of comments and recommendations.

The San Diego Log reports that a Superior Court judge on Sept. 10 denied the Port of San Diego’s appeal of a ruling to allow a controversial initiative to be placed on the Nov. 4 ballot, leaving the decision whether to allow the construction of hotels, restaurants and a sports stadium above the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal in the hands of voters. The ability of the government to protect the rights of individuals and wildlife is greatly hindered by the high-ranking elected politicians who take campaign contributions from developers. Unfortunately, coots don't vote.

So long as touists and residents patronize hotels and restaurants around California bays, there will be more incentives for new development projects.

Leucistic

This partially albino duck was an unexpected visitor in September. Links below describe leucistic birds.

This bird may be a female Northern Shoveler.

New Coots

On the morning of September 14, two new coots appeared at the marina. The male shown here was able to get a drink of fresh water from the storm drain. Usually there is plenty of drinking water from lawn sprinkler runoff.

Another coot, a female, appeared by my boat.

This male was very wild and shy. Both coots were gone the next morning. Migrating coots fly at night, stopping during the day to eat, drink, and rest before moving on.

Beaky approached the female, and was bowing to her. She paddled away slowly.

Links of the Month

Your browser will open a new window for each of these links.

Leucistic links

Birds that show unusual color patterns with partially white feathers are described in the following links:

Jeff Wilson Leucistic and full to partially albinistic birds.

THIS TIME, IT'S LEUCISTIC The partially albino hummingbird.

Faucet Snails

These small invasive snails have been poisoning hundreds of coots on the Mississippi River every year:

Massive bird die-offWinona Daily News reports hundreds of coots killed by invasive snails

USGSInvestigation of Waterbird Die-Offs on the Upper Mississippi River

NPRInvasive Snails Take a Toll on Native Ducks

Minnesota Public RadioA new threat to duck populations

Saving the Ballona Wetlands

The following links cover the past several years of squabbling over the last few hundred acres of coastal wetlands available for new development in Los Angeles. The first link is to a letter forwarded by the Marina Del Rey Conservancy in September. The following links came up first on a Google search. The list of hits seems endless. Please be aware that they all have some sort of financial or political agenda, and I can't claim to make any sense of it all. They all want your money, one way or another.

Ballona Institute calls it "Cataclysmic restoration"

Friends of Ballona Wetlands

Marina del Rey Projects Gain Conceptual Approval as many argue that the projects violate the existing Local Coastal Program (LCP).

Cooper Ecological Monitoring conducts studies of bird distribution and habitat usage ay Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve

Los Angeles Times Tarp over part of Ballona Wetlands angers some environmentalists

Ballona Creek Renaissance is a Culver City-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to facilitating the long-term collaborative renewal of Ballona Creek and its watershed.

The Ballona Wetlands Land Trust is advocating and litigating to protect the remaining 200 acres of the Ballona Wetlands Ecosystem.

Ballona Wetlands Film Series Music by Joni Mitchell, Kenny Loggins and Joe Walsh

West Nile Virus

It's getting worse.

San Diego County Vector-Borne Diseases Call Steve Rivera at 1-888-551-4636 for reporting dead birds. Mostly Corvids are being tested, but waterfowl will be included soon.

WNV Disease Maps for California from the USGS show we are only second to Orange County.

Eclectic links

Some good, some bad; your choice:

The Bankground webcam shows Arthur Ransome's beloved Coniston lake. Ransome was the author of Coot Club and Swallows and Amazons. In 1928 Bankground Farm was the home of the children who inspired the characters for Ransome's series of childrens' books. This live webcam allows you to move the camera to select different views along the lake.

RSPCA exploits domestic violence to promote itself.

Golf Wildlife This Group is specific to Golf Course Wildlife.

Hawaiian Crow Audubon cites a failed breeding attempt as a promotion to raise funds for more failed breeding attempts.

How Come? Science discoveries for the whole family especially if you're six years old.

How to distinguish groups doing good from ones that just sound good. Do you believe all these recommendations? I don't.

Teflon Is Forever more on the carcinogen that keeps on giving.

Self-Help Group for victims of the RSPCA

Crows Have Human-Like Intelligence National Geographic News describes new research about stuff we knew all along.

Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan a popular new book about pigeons.

Animal Welfare through Environmental and Behavioral Enrichment and Behavioral Enrichment for Birds in Captivity shows that captive live birds are no better than pictures for educational purposes.

Your Flea Circus Get Better and Higher Paid Bookings With This Unique Act…

Disasters are Getting Worse with loss of coastal wetlands due to development projects.

Pet Hobbyist.com blog read the latest entries

How Peacocks Got Their Colorful Tails and other tales

They need your bra in Fiji.

The Outermost HouseA Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod is an American naturalist classic novel of the 1930's

The Pigeon Cote books and more help about pigeons.

Big Picture:

Beaky Coot paddles along with a worried expression on his face. Click on the picture at right to enlarge. Click again if your browser is set to resize the image to fit your screen. Use your back button to return.

The Blackbird

The male blackbird, in his new winter coat of feathers, sneaks around watching me carefully as he steals the coot's food.

The blackbird certainly knows that I am the source of food, and will come to me to be fed, but never becomes "tame".

The Rocks

Habitat destruction continues with the remarkable addition of more rocks along the sidewalk. Winter is coming, and this will eliminate another small source of food and water for migrating birds.

The Duck

This mallard has joined Beaky on his roost, making an odd pair of bedfellows.

Sometimes the duck comes to the boat to watch the coot eat, creating another socially awkward situation.

The Grebe

This pied billed grebe Podilymbus podiceps appeared alone in the marina about September 15. The bird is a "floater", staying in about the same place in the water all the time.

This grebe tries to follow a coot or duck around for a while, but has no friends, and is still here at the end of the month.

The Ducks

About September 23 every duck was gone from the parking lot. I had been keeping a count of these birds thinking that their constant population of about fifty members over the years would make an interesting research project. A count indicated that twenty ducks were missing.

The remaining survivors now stay at the far side of the marina as shown at right. This is the far southwest corner of Chula Vista Bayside Park near the restrooms. They never go near the parking lot now.

Over the past several weeks, the ducks were easy to count since they would assemble in the parking lot at 550 Marina Parkway every day. The ducks acted as if someone were feeding (baiting) them since they would run up to me hopefully, and then turn away in disappointment when no food was forthcoming.

The surviving thirty mallards were staying at the far west corner of the marina, not returning to the parking lot. This indicates that something had happened to terrify them earlier in the week. From these observations, it seems that someone had been baiting the ducks for a period of weeks, and was able to suddenly capture some of them by unknown means.

Rumors were that someone had come and taken the ducks. If this was the case, there are only a few local agencies with the federal and state permits to do this legally. None of the local agencies contacted were aware of any such take, or research collection permits.

The California Department of Fish & Game considers this as an illegal take (poaching). However, they are somewhat limited by funding and manpower, and also by lack of credible witnesses. Anyone might have done this, since it is near the street and outside of secured areas.

Recommended action is clearly posted by management on signs at this property. Anyone who sees such a case of animal harassment should call the Chula Vista Police at (619) 691-5151. As directed by the signs, cite California Penal Code Section 597. This covers all sorts of animal abuse.

You may also report poachers & polluters by calling Cal-TIP toll-free: 1-888-DFG-CALTIP (888-334-2258).

California Penal Code Section 597

Two Coots

On September 29, about an hour before sunrise, I heard a "squawk" in the darkness behind the boat. I discovered this hungry female coot. I gave her a few cracker crumbs and she went paddling around the marina, as any new arrival does. Through the morning, she would come to me when she wanted to be fed, and ignore me otherwise.

Missy, last year's mate, is now more than four weeks late on her return.

I have never seen this new female before. In fact, any female at all is rare for the marina. Last winter was the first season we ever had two female coots together.

The new female "moved in" with Mr. Beaky, sleeping on his roost with him, and following him around the marina.

Beaky doesn't like the new female, and indeed he never liked any of the new females since his original mate left him behind with his broken wing. At times in past years, he would fly into a rage and attack some of the subsequent females. He would become especially angry if he saw me feeding one of them. He never did this with Missy, and has not attacked this new arrival. He still resents her eating and drinking from his dishes.

I must hold my hand in front of Beaky to prevent his pecking her while she eats. Fortunately, she understands this perfectly and knows how to eat and drink from cups and dishes.

It took a couple of weeks (years ago) to make Beaky understand that water can be obtained from most hollow cylindrical objects. This female understands this immediately. It is remarkable how quickly she learns to cope with these things after only two days.

You may think that she was someone's pet before. The color in her toes is just starting to show a bit of yellow and she may be two years old, but no older. I will be able to learn more about her abilities and attitudes over the coming month.