Fulica americana | Mike Powell

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Posts Tagged ‘Fulica americana’

A raft of coots and ruddy ducks

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged American Coot, Canon 7D, Fulica americana, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Oxyura jamaicensis, raft of coots, Ruddy Duck, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on December 9, 2024| 4 Comments »

At this time of the year I often see large groups of ducks, often referred to as “rafts” because the ducks gather so closely together, in the waters off of Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Frequently there are different species of ducks intermixed, though in my experience there is usually a dominant species.

In later November, I spotted a large group of American Coots (Fulica americana) during a visit to the refuge, as you can see in the first photo below. Coots are pretty easy to identify because of the shape and color of their bills. In addition to the coots, a number of Ruddy Ducks (Oxyura jamaicensis) were part of the raft. I encourage you to click on the image to get a better look at the individual birds.

Technically, coots are not ducks, though, because they have lobed rather than webbed feet. The coots that day were too far away for me to get a shot of their feet, so I am instead including a photo I took in April 2017 that shows those lobed feet and the coot’s distinctive red eyes.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Eagle grabs coot

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged American Coot, Bald Eagle, Canon 7D, coot, Fulica americana, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on March 11, 2023| 12 Comments »

Whenever I see a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in the air, I will try to track it through the lens of my camera. This past Wednesday I was tracking an eagle that was a long way from me at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The eagle was flying quite low, so I figured he was fishing.

I snapped the first photo shortly after the eagle dropped down to the water and grabbed what I thought was a fish. As you can see in the photo, the birds in the immediate area were quite agitated with the eagle flying just above them. When I examined the image on my computer, I realized that the eagle’s prey was probably an American Coot (Fulica americana), not a fish.

The eagle flew low over the water, probably to avoiding alerting any other eagles of its catch. As the eagle flew by me, I was able to capture the second and third images that clearly show the wings of the bird in the eagle’s talons.

The eagle landed in a small tree not far from the shore and proceed to feast on its freshly-caught meal. The bird was wedged in a crook in the tree that helped to steady the prey as the eagle dug into it. If you look closely at the eagle’s beak in the fourth photo, you can see bright red blood from the bird.

When the eagle had partially consumed its meal, it flew to another tree. In the final photo you can see the dangling feet of the prey. Unlike ducks that have webbed feet, coots have lobed feet with long toes and you can see some of those toes in the last image. If you would like to get a closer look at a coot’s feet, check out my December 2014 blog post entitled “Coot feet.”

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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An explosion of coots

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged American Coot, Canon 7D, coot, explosion of coots, Fulica americana, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on February 23, 2023| 6 Comments »

One of my favorite trails at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge follows the shoreline. In many parts of the trail, vegetation partially blocks my view of the water, but there are also open areas that let me get clear shots of ducks and other waterfowl. As I was nearing one such open area on Tuesday the water suddenly exploded—I had spooked a flock of American Coots (Fulica americana) that had been feeding close to the shore.

I quickly brought my camera up to my eye and snapped off a few photos. When I reviewed the resulting images on my screen, I really liked the sense of motion that I had managed to capture in the coots and in the water. I decided not to crop the two photos below, so you can get a sense of what I was seeing when I looked through my camera’s viewfinder. Neither image is super sharp, but I think that the slight blurriness enhances the almost abstract “feel” of the photos.

What do you think?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Raft of coots

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged American Coot, Canon 7D, coot, Fulica americana, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, raft of coots, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on February 10, 2023| 4 Comments »

On Monday I spotted a large raft of American Coots (Fulica americana) in the waters off of Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Some of the coots were clustered so tightly together that that it reminded me of the Metro at rush hour. Many of us seem to like a bit more “personal space,” but these coots did not seems to mind being shoulder-to-shoulder with each other. Do birds have shoulders?

I have no idea how many coots were in this group, but there seemed to be hundreds of them, as you can see in the second image. If you look closely at that photo, you may notice some other species, including some scaups, intermixed with the coots. The image is mostly made up of shades of gray, which make the brown tones of several of the ducks near the center of the frame really stand out.

I visited the same wildlife refuge yesterday and did not see a single coot—I guess they were just passing through our area.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Collection of coots

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged American Coot, Canon 50D, Fulica americana, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on November 22, 2021| 7 Comments »

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.

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Close-up Coots

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged American Coot, Canon 50D, Fulica americana, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on November 7, 2020| 5 Comments »

In addition to the large raft of American Coots (Fulica americana) that I spotted in the waters off of Occoquan Bay Wildlife Refuge last week and featured in a posting entitled A raft of coots, I also saw three coots near to the shore swimming around in a little circle like they were lost. I do not know if they had somehow gotten separated from the group, but they struck me as being very vulnerable—as several readers have noted, coots are vulnerable to being picked off by bald eagles.

This close-up shots highlight some of the notable characteristics of this species, including their red eyes and their legs that are placed rather far back on their bodies, making walking a bit of a challenge.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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A raft of coots

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged American Coot, Canon 50D, Fulica americana, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, raft of coots, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on November 2, 2020| 21 Comments »

Normally when I see American Coots (Fulica americana) I see only a few of them at a time, but last Friday I spotted a whole raft of them in the waters off of Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. They seemed to be of mixed ages, not just old coots like me.

I zoomed out with my 150-600mm lens to capture the whole raft and then zoomed in to capture some details. I recommend that you double-click on the images, especially the second one, to see wonderful details, like all of the red eyes. There seem to be a number of different colored beaks in the group, suggesting the possibility that there are some other species mixed in, though it appears to be mostly coots.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Walking coot

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, American Coot, Canon 50D, coot, Fulica americana, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm on April 6, 2017| 11 Comments »

Coots look clumsy when bobbing about in the water, but amazingly they look even more awkward out of the water, like this one that I spotted Monday at Huntley Meadows Park. Their green feet, which are not webbed like those of a duck, seem disproportionately large and almost cartoonish, like the oversized Hulk hands that I have seen little kids wear at times in the past.

When I first started photographing birds, I assumed that American Coots (Fulica americana) were part of the duck family. After all, coots swam in the water, were about the same size as some ducks, and sometimes seemed to hang out with ducks.

When I did a little research, however, I learned that coots are not at all related to ducks. As the Cornell Lab of Ornithology points out, “they’re closer relatives of the gangly Sandhill Crane and the nearly invisible rails than of Mallards or teal.”

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Laughing coot

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, American Coot, Canon 50D, coot, Fulica americana, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm on March 16, 2017| 1 Comment »

Do coots laugh? I don’t know for sure, but that’s certainly what this American Coot (Fulica americana) seemed to be doing when I spotted him on Monday morning at Huntley Meadows Park.

A bit later in the day, when the direction of the light was less harsh, I saw some more coots and was able to capture an image that shows more accurately the color of the coot’s body and its eerie red eyes.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Coot in the wind

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, American Coot, Canon 50D, coot, Fulica americana, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm on March 4, 2017| 6 Comments »

The wind was howling yesterday afternoon at Huntley Meadows Park, making the water really choppy and threatening to blow me off of the boardwalk. A solo American Coot (Fulica americana) was one of the few birds that attempted to navigate its way among the waves—it looked almost like a scene at the ocean’s shore.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Early morning coot

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, American Coot, Canon 50D, coot, Fulica americana, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm on March 20, 2016| 10 Comments »

As the early morning sun reflected on the water in pale shades of pink and blue last Friday at Huntley Meadows Park, this American Coot (Fulica americana) looked unusually happy as he foraged in the vegetation, occasionally glancing in my direction with a smile on his face.

It must have been a young coot—we all know that old coots are crotchety and don’t like to be bothered by others.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Coot feet

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, American Coot, Canon 50D, coot, feet, Fulica americana, Potomac River, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on December 6, 2014| 10 Comments »

American Coots (Fulica americana) have strange-looking feet. I mistakenly assumed that coots had webbed feet, like ducks, and was shocked recently when I saw one out of the water to see that is definitely not the case.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology website had this description of their feet ”

“Although it swims like a duck, the American Coot does not have webbed feet like a duck. Instead, each one of the coot’s long toes has broad lobes of skin that help it kick through the water. The broad lobes fold back each time the bird lifts its foot, so it doesn’t impede walking on dry land, though it supports the bird’s weight on mucky ground.”

Recently at the edge of the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia, I came upon this coot that seemed to be grooming itself. After a short time, it assumed a pose that reminded me of the crane kick position that featured so prominently in the movie The Karate Kid. Perhaps the coots have their own martial art.

Eventually the coot became aware of my presence and stopped what it was doing and looked in my direction. There was a disapproving look in its intense stare and it almost looked like it was giving me the evil eye.

American Coot

Practicing martial arts

American Coot

Giving me the evil eye

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Red-eye special

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, American Coot, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, coot, Fulica americana, Huntley Meadows Park, red eyes, red-eye on April 4, 2014| 3 Comments »

Another coot? Yes, as I was going over my recent shots of an American Coot (Fulica americana) at my local marsh one more time, I decided that I liked this image even more than the one I posted yesterday. The coot has a kind of determined look in its eye and the tilted head gives it a sense of tension, like it is exerting effort to pull that plant out of the water. Besides, I seem to be attracted to birds and animals with unusually colored eyes.

I find it tough at times to choose the best shot quickly when I have shot a series of images. Probably I need to take a little more time in reviewing the images, but I am often in too much of a hurry to find an image (or images) to post. A year ago, I felt compelled to attempt to post every single day, but I have backed off slightly and miss a day now from time to time.

Nonetheless, I still like to post images that appeal to me, which are often, but not always, my “best” shots. Sometimes the photos will merely document the experience that I want to share with readers and may not be technically great images. It’s a little selfish, perhaps, but I shoot mostly for me. Fortunately, I sense that my skills are improving and hope that the quality of the images I post tend to reflect that improvement.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Hungry coot

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, American Coot, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, coot, Fulica americana, Huntley Meadows Park on April 3, 2014| 9 Comments »

Thanks to some recent rains and a major wetland restoration project at my local marsh, we seem to have a lot more American Coots (Fulica americana) than last year. Most of the time they seem to like to keep their distance. This past Monday, though, one of them drifted toward an area relatively close to where I was standing and I managed to get this shot of the coot feeding on some of the vegetation growing out of the water.© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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American Coot in the marsh

Posted in Art, Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, American Coot, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, coot, Fulica americana, Huntley Meadows Park on October 18, 2013| 8 Comments »

Have you ever watched a coot swim? When I first spotted this American Coot (Fulica americana) earlier this week at my local marsh, I thought it might be a duck. Once it started swimming, I could tell immediately that it was a coot.

Coots have a really clumsy way of swimming. They thrust their necks forward and then back, as if to generate momentum to propel themselves forward. The two photos show two different positions that the coot assumes while swimming. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology that coots, unlike ducks, don’t have webbed feet, but instead each one of the coot’s long toes has broad lobes of skin that help it kick through the water. In fact, they are closer relatives to Sandhill Cranes than to Mallards.

This coot was by itself and may be migrating through this area or may become a resident here for the winter. I was happy that I saw the coot in a relatively open area of the marsh. A short time later, the coot swam into the cattails and disappeared from sight.

Given the popular use of the term “coot,” I wonder if I am old enough to qualify as an American coot too.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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American Coot

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged American Coot, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, coot, Fulica americana, Huntley Meadows Park on March 25, 2013| 7 Comments »

Have you ever tried to take photos with an umbrella in one hand and your camera in the other? Mixed snow and rain fell during most of today and things were pretty quiet in the marsh today. I walked along the slushy boardwalk with an open umbrella, trying desperately to find something to photograph.

I was surprised to come across an American Coot (Fulica americana) for the first time in the park, although I saw lots of them earlier in the month when I was visiting in Georgia. This coot was by himself—I didn’t see any other coots and he was not hanging out with ducks either.

Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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