| Coots in the Piney
Woods are friendly old birds By Jay V.
Huner |
 Photo Jim Johnson Photography Lecompt LA |
Fall brings northern waterbirds to the piney woods to spend the winter. Ducks and geese are very skittish around people and with good reason thanks to the popularity of waterfowl hunting. But, there is one duck-like waterbird that shows little fear of people. The black, some say slate gray, American Coot appears with the fall's first real cold fronts in the fall. Coots have white, chicken-like pointed bills. When they come out park ponds to forage for popcorn and pieces of bread, their feet are not webbed like the greedy ducks, usually twice their size, shove them out of the way. Rather, coots have webbing on their toes that aid them in swimming. Coots are accomplished swimmers and can dive 30-40 feet to forage for food. But, they don't fly very well. Their bodies seem disproportionally large compared to their wings. In fact, frightened coots, given a choice, will dive rather than try to fly. Coots literally walk across the water flapping like crazy to get enough air speed to get off the water. It's common for them to just barely get into the air, give up, plop into the water and dive. Coots normally eat vegetation and drive crawfish farmers a bit crazy when huge flocks tear up the rice stubble and vegetation growing in their ponds. This is the food base for the crawfish crop. And, to add injury to insult, coots do eat some crawfish and other aquatic invertebrates. The Cajun name for coot is "poule d'eau" which, translated literally, means "chicken of the water". Watch coots for a while and you'll see that they move about on land like chickens foraging for food. Coots leave for northern breeding grounds by mid-spring. A few remain, however, and an occasional nest is found. Coots can be hunted and the daily limit is 15. Most duck hunters ignore coots as they are not all that challenging to hunt. They also have a reputation as being poor table fare. However, in coastal areas, many Cajuns hunt coots at the beginning of the season and then go duck and goose hunting. I find coots to be a bit gamey in flavor and they have annoying tendons that seem sort of like wires in their legs. But, I've never seen anyone turn down a coot gumbo at hunting camps. Coot meat can be deboned, marinated and grilled to generate a really tasty treat, in my opinion. Years ago when I first started hunting, old timers referred to coots as "flying gizzards". And, coot gizzards are huge and do not have the gamey flavor associated with the rest of the body. \par }{\plain Besides Cajuns, many predaceous birds target the coot as a major food resource. This is especially true of our national bird, the Bald Eagle. Bald Eagles love to eat coots. Coots, of course, don't care to be food. So when eagles make passes at them, they dive beneath the surface for safety. They can stay under water for half a minute or so. Eagles resolve this problem by hunting in pairs. The lead eagle will make a pass at a flock of coots, all of which will dive for safety. The other eagle will follow about 30 seconds later as the coots pop to the surface and pick off a hapless coot. Jay V. Huner |
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