Birds are endlessly interesting, coots included.
August 29
Sixteen days ago at Bear River MBR I found a small family of American Coots on an old nest that I’m confident I remember as an old Western Grebe nest from earlier in the summer. I didn’t think much of it at the time but I took a few photos because I thought it was a little unusual to find coots on a nest of any kind that late in the year and I thought they looked fairly photogenic up there.
There were actually four of them hanging out on the nest, the two adults on the right and left and two of their nearly fully grown youngsters. Another reason they caught my eye was because by then most of this year’s young coots on the refuge had already been driven from their natal territory by their parents and were living independently.
And none of the other coots that I noticed were still on nests, of any kind.
August 30
The next day the coot family was still hanging out on the nest. Two of them swam off as I approached, with an adult and a youngster left behind.
September 5
Six days later they were still there, with two of them on the nest and two on the water.
September 11
Six days after that I was surprised to find them still there. Two were on the nest and…
two were swimming nearby. This is one of only two shots I got that included all four of them.
You may have noticed that the nest is now looking pretty waterlogged and has rotated 180° in the water. Western Grebe nests are “built up from bottom or a submerged snag, or floating in up to 3 m of water and anchored to emergent or floating plants.” I suspect that this nest is anchored to the vertical snag we see poking out of the water in the last three photos, allowing it to rotate like that as the water current and depth changes in the canal.
I’m not sure how unusual all this is but it’s certainly unusual in my experience to see coots maintaining their family unit for this long and to see them doing it on what I believe is a nest of another species.
And interestingly, these coots and their adopted nest are located…
only a very short distance from the spot where I found “Old Stoneface” on three of the four same days that I found the coots on the nest. After finding the heron in almost the same place that many days in a row I was beginning to think he was a permanent fixture there.
Maybe there’s something in the water…
Ron
Birds ARE fascinating. Endlessly so. Old Stone Face wasn’t there every day? It seems he can move…
Nope, I didn’t see him on that last day, September 11. Or if I did, he wasn’t quite in the same spot. .
I get a very eerie feeling from this series – is this Mother Nature’s diorama of primeval Bear River MBR? The floating nest is weird, the coots are weird, Old Stoneface is weird, and the water looks like it is cooking other things that are gonna lumber out and also be weird. It doesn’t help that as I am looking at these photos, the magpies and Stellar’s jays are making all kinds of weird sounds outside my window! 👽
Bye-bye weirdness! I’m going to revisit Forster’s Terns, Marsh Wrens, and Baby Pheasants now!🐤
You describe your impressions well, Carolyn – especially the “cooking” part.
Very interesting Ron. One of our most overlooked or ignored water fowl. Of course we have Coots in all our lakes, but I never remember seeing any on something in the water. Just always swimming around or on the shore. I took a lot of photos this year of the very cute juvenile coots.
Thanks, Everett. We had more young coots at Bear River MBR this year than I’ve ever seen there before.
For me, the “popcorn” was in learning that the Western Grebe nests
are customarily anchored to an underwater snag–makes perfect sense for a floating nest–but I wouldn’t have thought of it myself. I
DID think of how coyote-resistant a floating nest would be……
Coyote resistant and resistant to many other predators too. An effective strategy I would think.
I really enjoyed this series. The number of inexplicable behaviors I’ve come across are adding up, and this certainly belongs on the list. One thing I learned is that the parents will drive away the youngsters at some point. Apparently these juveniles are more stubborn than most, or the parents haven’t yet put those remarkable feet down firmly enough.
“or the parents haven’t yet put those remarkable feet down firmly enough.”
I like your phrasing on that. Thanks, Shoreacres.
Sept 5 is a great photo bring so much depth to the image. Thank you for hanging for your curious eye with, yet another change not seen in previous years. I’m drawn to this new documentary series that seems to be developing and an experience causing folks to become curious 🧐. I appreciate the time you spend, a benefit to me as a curious reader as the mystery unfolds. Popcorn 🍿 anyone?
Thanks, Deb. I had my fill of popcorn yesterday while I was at Ford waiting for my pickup to be serviced.
Fun and interesting post. The great things about photographing birds and looking at other people’s photos is how much you learn while you are doing it! Thanks again for your photos and insight.
Thanks very much, Joanne.
Just when you think you understand them they laugh and show you don’t! 😉 Nice shots of a VERY unusual situation….. Those feet are always a bit of a giggle……. 🙂
I agree, Judy. Sometimes it’s hard to look past their feet.