![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/american-coot-4261-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-coot-4261-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAmerican Coots are universally described as quarrelsome and belligerent but this time of year they crank it up a notch. Or two.<\/p>\n
In late fall coots begin to show up in large numbers at a pond I frequent but for the first few weeks they’re pretty even-tempered so they can be kind of boring to photograph. But in December, when it begins to snow and patches of the pond begin to ice up, they turn into barroom brawlers.<\/p>\n
It’s a transformation I see every year and yesterday afternoon I saw my first evidence of it in many of the coots on the pond.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I got quite a few photos of angry coots but I like this one best, in part because of the way ‘his’ body is tipped slightly toward the viewer as he pursued another coot that had apparently invaded his feeding territory. His running feet and the water splashes add to the excitement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But I’m still trying to figure out his precise motivation for the attack. Was he really defending his feeding territory or was he defending his mate from the other coot?<\/p>\n This time of year, many of the coots on the pond appear<\/em> to be paired up already. They tend to feed and hang out in pairs and act belligerently toward other coots that come in too close to them. However, Cornell says two things that almost seem to be conflicting:<\/p>\n Hopefully the following photo, taken in the same burst and almost immediately after the photo above, will help to explain my confusion.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Here the presumed male in the first photo is beginning to settle back down into the water after chasing away the other coot, whose water splash as it escapes can be seen at the left edge of the frame. I had presumed that the coot behind the male was his mate because I watched them feeding peacefully and very close to each other for quite a while. When the third coot got a little too close to his presumed mate, the first male took major exception and attacked.<\/p>\n But if they don’t form pair bonds this early, I must be wrong about them being a mated pair. So maybe he attacked the other male? because that bird invaded his feeding territory, which is extremely common behavior for coots.<\/p>\n But if that’s the case, why was the original male so accepting of the presumed female in his feeding territory? After this series was taken, those two birds went calmly back to feeding very close to each other.<\/p>\n No biggie but I wonder about things like that.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: I’m adding another photo in the series as an afterthought.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Here the male is putting on the brakes after chasing the other coot away, which caused him to sink down in the water and the backwash from his pursuit to wash over his back\u00a0 \u00a0As a result, we can barely see him (his white bill allows us to place him in the frame) but I’m entertained by the turbulent water flowing over his back. And amused by the indifference of the presumed female to his efforts as she turns away from him.\u00a0 Apparently she isn’t easily impressed.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" American Coots are universally described as quarrelsome and belligerent but this time of year they crank it up a notch. Or two.\u00a0 (three photos)<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/american-coot-4265-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-coot-4265-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/american-coot-4269-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-coot-4269-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n