![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/american-coot-7421-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-coot-7421-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd when it happened I got lucky.<\/p>\n
Two days ago I spent part of the morning photographing ducks from my tripod in freezing temperatures. But as usual there were American Coots in the mix and I never ignore them completely, in part because their pugnacious nature very often provides opportunities for some fun action\/fighting shots. It helps to be familiar with their behaviors so you can anticipate their skirmishes because they usually happen so fast it’s all over before you can get your lens on them.<\/p>\n
But if you miss one opportunity you’re likely to have another, and soon. The American Coot is universally described as being a “quarrelsome and belligerent bird”. So they just can’t help themselves and that’s to the photographer’s advantage.<\/p>\n
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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n When you see a coot in this threat posture, with its head lowered and its neck extended across the water’s surface, there’s a very good chance that an attack is about to occur. Be ready for it.<\/p>\n But even if you have your lens on them when it begins a lot of other things have to come together for success, chief among them getting both fighting birds in the frame. More often than not both birds will be scampering away from you so all you get is butt shots. And then there’s the potential double kibosh of shutter speed and depth of field. I prefer a minimum SS of 1\/2500 but when it comes to having sufficient DOF for two or more aggressive or fighting birds you’re usually at the mercy of chance and the fickle gods of photography<\/p>\n But sometimes we get lucky.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n And I did later that morning.<\/p>\n I noticed the bird on the left in the classic threat posture and I got ‘him’ in my viewfinder just before he attacked the coot he’d been threatening. I was at about the right distance from the birds to get them both in frame and I had the SS to get them both sharp, or sharp enough. My luck continued when the pursuit occurred mostly laterally to me rather than away from me. We can even see the red eyes of both birds. The syrup on the pancake was when the pursued coot looked over its shoulder at its pursuer with its beak open and a terrified look on its face.<\/p>\n As I look at this photo I can hear the panicked squawking of the coot on the right in my head.<\/p>\n In situations like this the best photo I usually get, if I get a ‘good’ one at all, includes only a single bird and the water splash of the other one. This isn’t what I’d call a “great shot” (an overused descriptor if you ask me) but I think it’s a pretty darn good one and it’s interesting and fun to see so I was more than happy to get it.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And when it happened I got lucky. (2 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/american-coot-7981-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-coot-7981-ron-dudley\\"")
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