{"id":77976,"date":"2021-01-18T06:29:51","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T13:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=77976"},"modified":"2025-10-09T18:04:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T23:04:17","slug":"adult-american-coot-bathing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/01\/18\/adult-american-coot-bathing\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult American Coot Bathing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdultAdult American Coot bathing in icy cold water \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Three days ago I photographed this adult American Coot bathing on a sunny afternoon at a pond close to where I live in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

A few days before I took this photo the pond was almost completely iced over. Our recent warmer than normal temps melted the thin ice after one sunny day.<\/p>\n

As I focused on the bathing American Coot<\/span><\/a> I thought about how as humans we attempt to label this species as cantankerous, grumpy, fighters, cranky, loud, obnoxious, or as having a sour disposition.<\/p>\n

Truthfully they can be loud, they fight, and they are territorial.<\/p>\n

Yet I cringed when I thought about the labels we pin on coots because they behave the way they do without malice and it is never<\/em> because of overblown egos.<\/p>\n

Coots don’t get angry the way some people describe.<\/p>\n

Anger is human. Coots instinctively behave the way they do to breed and survive.<\/p>\n

I pushed my thoughts away and focused on the coot splashing in the icy cold water of the pond. I found joy in photographing a coot doing what coots do when the sun is shining and there is fresh water to bathe in.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Three days ago I photographed this adult American Coot bathing on a sunny afternoon at a pond close to where I live in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[4004,4010,5109,4373,5795,2772,2773,4121,4588,6241,1984,2688,3996,373],"class_list":["post-77976","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-american-coot","tag-bath","tag-bathing","tag-cold","tag-coot","tag-coots","tag-fulica-americana","tag-gruiformes","tag-icy","tag-pond","tag-splashing","tag-water","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