I want to underline again what Carl is saying. The Coots that are being seen are first just dead with no apparent injuries. Then obviously they will be scavenged at some point.
This is just to bring this to peoples' attention as something that could be of concern. Like finding a few dead bats in Howe Caverns in 2006 and now a million cave hibernating bats have died with White Nose Fungus. Linda Sent from my iPhone On Nov 26, 2010, at 9:02 AM, Carl Steckler <c...@cornell.edu> wrote: > On 11/25/2010 11:04 PM, Susan Norvell wrote: >> >> This afternoon (Thursday) about 3pm, Bud and I were at Stewart Park. >> (Buffleheads, Redheads, Coots, Mallards, Canada geese.) >> >> Along the swan pen path, fairly close to the entrance, were the remains of >> presumably three coots. They were just off the path near the lake under some >> shrubbery on fairly bare patches of ground. The first was simply a 30” >> circle of aged fluff and feathers, no other remains - most probably one >> reported earlier. A second feather circle was about 6 feet beyond the >> first, but with fairly recent coot remains. At least one wing and several >> long bones remained. Then about 10 feet further, we found a third circle of >> feathers, again with fresh remains from a third coot. Again, there was >> considerable “meat” left, so I presume it was a fairly fresh death or kill. >> (A bit hard to judge how long dead, as the rain and cold had kept >> everything quite preserved.) When we walked back to the car, I found a large >> portion of another coot wing on the lawn. We were pretty chilly by then, so >> I didn’t go back to count wings. I don’t know if the single wing was part of >> coot #2, #3, or a 4th unlucky bird. >> >> As we started to drive away, we noticed an adult bald eagle sitting toward >> the top of a large tree across the inlet from the boat house. It’s >> hard not to wonder if it’s found a fast food spot. >> >> Sue Norvell >> >> >> > Funny you should mention the eagle. The recent Nat Geo series "Migrations" > had a scene where eagles were preying on coots. However I saw a dead coot > last week by the aluminum dock that looked like it was just sitting in the > water not moving, but quite dead. There were no signs of any damage at all. > Carl Steckler -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
