A large raft of American Coots (Fulica americana) has been hanging out recently in the waters off of Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The coots stay together pretty closely and have remained out in the deep waters, so getting a close-up shot of a single coot has proven to be impossible.
I have tried a number of different approaches to capturing a sense of this group of active water birds and here are some of the resulting images. The first image gives the viewer a feeling of the chaotic activity at the center of the group as one coot flaps its wings. The second image focuses on the coot in the foreground, facing in the opposite direction from most of the others in the foreground. The final photo is a more panoramic shot and includes more of the environment—I especially love the pops of color in it provided by the floating fallen leaves.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Wow, I love to see the Coot rafts. Around here it’s a follow the leader, winding tight along the edge of the marsh grasses. Might be a long line of hundreds. And yeah, hard to photo, get close. Nice catch 👏👏👏👏
Nice Mike! Enjoyed seeing them!
I resemble that remark…err post. 🙂
Great photos, Mike. I like the color added by the leaves, too.
I love coots! ~here they’re self-introduced from Australia and called the Australian coot. Very interesting to compare our respective species. Ours have a white face-shield in addition to the white beak, a very pure-white. From New Zealand Birds Online, “The Australian coot (Fulica atra australis) of Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand is a subspecies of the Eurasian coot, which is widespread in Europe, North Africa and Asia.” Perhaps you’d like to see a picture so I’ll give the link: https://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/australian-coot
It is interesting, Liz, that you have the a subspecies of the Eurasian coot there. A few years ago I saw some of the Eurasian variety when I was on a work trip to Vienna, Austria. I had been to Vienna a lot of times, so I was out wildlife exploring instead of seeing the sights in the center of the city. (https://michaelqpowell.com/2016/04/27/eurasian-coot-in-vienna/).
Ah! Thanks Mike, looks like I’ve seen that post before too, and had put a ‘like’ on it, but had forgotten about it in the meantime. Good to see it again.