American Coot | Dawns Bloggy Blog

Category Archives: American Coot

Coot Feet~Sweet

Posted on February 11, 2011 | 13 comments

Howdee all,

I want you to see these feet!~ Mind you, my photos are taken with a point and shoot..wish I had a DSLR for something like this..

Notice the strange feet of the Coot. Unlike ducks and most other water birds, which have webbed
feet, the Coot has feet which are lobed.
To take off from the water, the Coot does not flap its wings and rise upward like other waterfowl are capable of doing.
Instead, Coots run over the water surface on their their feet, thrashing their wings until becoming air-borne. Their tail is
so short that it cannot be used for steering during flight. Instead, the Coot uses its outstretched feet to steer while flying.
One of the Coot’s predators is the bald eagle, possibly because the Coot becomes air borne so slowly compared to other
waterfowl. Also, Coots like open water and therefore are in plain sight when the eagle is looking for food. Typically, Coots and
Rails are weak flyers compared to ducks and geese.

Aren’t they the coolest things?…Sweet Feet!Red eye…Red dotted noggin…

(red-brown frontal shield on the forehead)A cover or raft of Coot

Hot of the presses today… my latest post at Birdingblogs.com

Featured Bird Butt Blogger of the Week

Yeah..you read that right!

Happy Birding!

13 Comments

Posted in American Coot, Birding, Birding(Florida)

Green Cay Wetlands with the Badbirdz

Posted on February 7, 2011 | 11 comments

Howdee all,

I cant say enough about Green Cay Nature Center..

Green Cay Nature Center is the county’s newest nature center that overlooks 100 acres of constructed wetland and provides educational opportunities about this unique habitat. The wetland features 1.5 miles of elevated boardwalk featuring interpretive signs about the habitat. The Nature Center includes a lecture hall, gift shop, and live animals in an extensive exhibit room that highlights wetland attributes. Come for a visit and find that there’s something for everyone at this fantastic new facility!

I love this place! I could spend all day here…Granted its not in the wilds,it is an Oasis in a noisy sprawling developed area in Boynton Beach.

I love the Colors here..the green of the algae and Duck weed…Close up views of birds…

This particular day we met up with Angel and Mariel Abreu of Badbirz-reloaded.

Below is a bit about their website

Noel Wamer made us all “radar junkies”. Just because he’s off the official scene, doesn’t mean we can all up and quit cold-turkey. This blog is an attempt to keep the radar images coming, and to engage birders, scientists, and anyone else who is interested, in the study of migration using radar. Beginning in October 2008, Angel and Mariel Abreu joined the Badbirdz team as contributing authors, and as of Spring 2009 have become the primary authors and administrators of the site. My other site, http://www.woodcreeper.com, tracks nocturnal migration over New Jersey, and was heavily influenced by Noel’s old website, badbirdz.com. ~David LaPuma

They could use your support..if you would like to donate to keep their website running go to this page.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We had a wonderful time with Angel and Mariel, they are great naturalists and birders, who enjoy taking their time to study all things nature. They don’t rush around to see it all, they immerse themselves into what is happening at the moment.

I filled a 4gb card taking photos and videoSo I wont be showing them all here…Instead, I will, feature a few of the critters we saw in their own posts….

So..until then enjoy some of the highlights of the day..

Turtle stack!Moss covered Turtles…A huge Alligator…Some sort of wasp… American Coot..Common MoorhenBlue-winged TealGreen HeronSora…..we saw six of them!Tri-colored Heron