{"id":50454,"date":"2018-01-02T05:26:34","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T12:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=50454"},"modified":"2025-10-08T13:37:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T18:37:26","slug":"coots-coots-and-more-coots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/01\/02\/coots-coots-and-more-coots\/","title":{"rendered":"Coots, Coots and More Coots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TwoTwo American Coots involved in a chase – Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The last birds I photographed in 2017 were American Coots and some of the first birds I took photos of in 2018 were also coots. I was excited to go out to photograph birds yesterday morning but the radar\/satellite indicated clouds so I opted to not go out photographing in the morning.<\/p>\n

Instead I made my yearly trek to Best Buy to purchase a new external portable hard drive for 2018. I don’t store the photos I take on the internal drive of my computer, I store them on the small portable hard drives by the year and back them up to a larger external drive.<\/p>\n

Storing precious photos on your actual computer hard drive isn’t wise at all. They are too easy to lose in a hard drive failure.<\/p>\n

Also, who wants to keep a half a dozen old computers handy nearby to access those images?<\/p>\n

Anyway, it was after 10 am when I went out the door to go to get the hard drive and the first bird I saw and heard for 2018 was a Black-billed Magpie. I’m happy it was a corvid, they fascinate me.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn aggressive American Coot in a chase – Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I could have gone photographing in the morning, the clouds the radar\/satellite showed over the Salt Lake Valley weren’t as bad as indicated and they cleared up rather quickly.<\/p>\n

In fact; it turned out to be a beautiful morning.<\/p>\n

I went to the local pond later in the afternoon to take photos of the birds there and the busiest plus the most cantankerous birds were American Coots<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The coots squabbled, they stalked each other, they chased, and they fought. Coots can be entertaining.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Coot chasing another coot out of its territory – Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I guess I could wish that the first bird I photographed in 2018 was a glorious Bald Eagle, a stooping Peregrine Falcon, a flock of Tundra Swans flying overhead, or a Great Horned Owl with prey, but in all honesty I love coots just as much as I do those birds.<\/p>\n

In my mind a bird is a bird is a bird.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to view more of my American Coot photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last birds I photographed in 2017 were American Coots and some of the first birds I took photos of in 2018 were also coots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[137,27,709,26],"tags":[4004,5554,5246,5643,4010,4284,2772,2773,4121,10698,1984,6308,8018,3996,16369,373],"class_list":["post-50454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-coots","category-avian","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-afternoon-light","tag-aggressive","tag-aggressive-behavior","tag-american-coot","tag-chase","tag-coot","tag-coots","tag-fulica-americana","tag-park","tag-pond","tag-territory","tag-urban","tag-water","tag-willow-pond-park","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t