Every year my friend and I keep a tally of how many different bird species we see during that year. We usually find the most species when birds are passing through during spring migration season which occurs in our area from now through late May.
But sometimes we’re so focused on traveling to other parts of the state to see birds, that we forget to check our own city. Over the weekend while running errands, we took a one block detour off a major thoroughfare to discover hundreds and hundred of American Coots floating on Lake Monona. They were bobbing on the water in several large groups, eating lake vegetation and chattering at one another.
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds website, coots are clumsy in flight and “typically have to beat their wings while running across the water for many yards.” They’re also sneaky. They sometimes steal food from other waterbirds, and lay their eggs in the nests of other coots.
They were very far out on the lake, so capturing a decent photo was difficult, but my friend and I also got to tally our first Common Loons for the year.
Like American Coots, Common Loons do a running-take-off on the water to take flight. In fact if they don’t have enough surface area to run and flap, they can get stranded on a body of water.
The All About Birds website shares that “Common Loons are expert anglers. Their diet consists of mostly fish, particularly perch and sunfish on their northern lakes…Loons shoot through the water like a torpedo, propelled by powerful thrusts of feet located near the rear of their body. When their quarry changes direction, loons can execute an abrupt flip-turn that would make Olympic swimmers jealous: they extend one foot laterally as a pivot brake and kick with the opposite foot to turn 180 degrees in a fraction of a second.”
Someday I would like to hear their beautiful, eerie calls in person.