Crazy as a Coot? Really? 2.0
Fall Coot country
You are looking at Coot country. That’s Coot as in Mud hen, the one like a chicken but it’s a water bird. If you wish precise terms use American Coot. If you speak Latin or have interest, Fulica americana. Need to know the family of birds? It’s classified as a Rallidae: the Rails, Gallinules and Coots. There are said to be 127 species of Rallidae. Right, coots have numerous bird relatives.
Coot country in fall has a subdued, drab look. A lake with tan cattails and gray-brown bulrushes along the shore or in shallow water beyond shore in the lake. The water in the photo was less than three feet deep. The colors of the landscape oranges, reds, yellows and less green-fall hues. On cloudy days the lake is silver gray. With sunshine it is deep marine blue. As fall days pass the vegetation on the lake shore and into the lake gradually shades from emerald green to tans and green tinted browns.
A late season “Raft” of Coots
A second thing you may find intriguing is the time of year. The calendar read October 31. We seldom give outdoor changes a thought. So, you may find the temperature of the water at the time to be surprising. Most lakes in the area including the lake where these coots swam had water temperatures between forty-five and fifty degrees. We non feathered creatures could possibly survive for about 2 hours before being overcome by hypothermia. Death would soon follow. There were hundreds of coots on the water of this lake. They had been there 24/7 nearly two months. Earlier, the water was relatively warm as the flocks on this lake slowly gathered. At the time of these photos approximately 30 days remained before the lake is ice covered until the next spring-a span of more than four months. The water temperature is lower each day. No Coot hypothermia occurs. Crazy? Yes, bird down is crazy wonderful. Instead of crazy think of miraculous.
Crazy as a Coot? Coot down feathers enable the bird to maintain an average body temperature of about 105 degrees F. Do the comparison again. We skin on humans rapidly lose body heat in water below 50 degrees. In contrast, a coot equipped with down feathers close to its skin as layer one then body contour feathers waterproofed by two distinct features maintains its body temperature 24/7, all fall in water which drops in gradually temperature nearly every day. No hypothermia-ever. The two features work in combination. Coots have a gland ahead of their tails. Biologists call it the uropygial gland. Ordinary people like me call it the preening gland. Using its beak the coot extracts oil from this gland and rubs it on its contour feathers. While applying the oil a second waterproofing feature happens. The bird is preening. That’s reattaching the nearly microscopic barbules on every feather. Preening locks individual feathers into a solid unit. Coated with oil from the preening gland a coot stays dry and maintains body heat. Nothing crazy about this. In the wild, a coot may live up to ten years. Not a small feat. Which leads me to this: Coots are made for water.
In the first document about coots, written in 2019 entitled “Crazy as a Coot? Really?” I introduced the idea of coots as NOT crazy with a paragraph about where the expression originated:
You have heard the expression, “Crazy as a Coot.” This phrase is attributed to John Skelton, poet and tutor for King Henry VIII. In 1529 Skelton began a poem with the words, “The mad Coot.” While American Coot behavior has often been viewed by humans as crazy, it is not. “Crazy as a coot” is a human bound means of explaining bird behavior. When humans act like an American Coot…it’s for real crazy. Yet, American Coot behavior is far from crazy.
In the same 2019 article there were things written about the coot I still find too good to omit in this 2.0 version. Here’s a specially selected list:
· One biologist used the word “complicated” to describe the coot. I still like that. They are.
· Coots mate for life and male and female incubate the eggs. Coots provide humans a successful role model for family!
· Coots build a floating nest platform-with a ramp for their chicks to be able to reenter the nest while small.
· Last one. Newly hatched coot chicks have brilliant-colored feathers on their heads. This is a stark contrast to their drab dark gray of the parents. The color disappears as they grow. Why the color? Biologists have only guessed the reason-perhaps brightly colored chicks get fed with greater frequency?
Now for the clincher. It’s been five years since the first article “Crazy as a Coot? Really?” My photos for this article are not high quality. They were taken from a kayak bobbing in the waves created by a southeast wind. The coots are distant-far away. These birds didn’t need my interference. I didn’t force my way to a close up. Besides, they would not allow me any close-up photos. They were too wary. Consider for a moment with me. Some of the birds in the photos were likely in the photos taken in 2019. Migration follows predictable patterns. Coots form “rafts” of birds on this lake every fall-year after year. Therefore, those birds in the 2019 pictures have lived five years in the wild.
Some of these birds are present in the fall 2024 photo!
What does this mean? It means lots of flying. Migration to the south before winters then return trips for nesting in spring. How many thousands of miles have the wings of the birds flown in five years. It means five years of escaping and eluding predators. One of them-the Bald Eagle that frequents the lake when the birds are in fall rafts. It means many of these birds have seen natural wonders you and I can only speculate about. Lightning and thunder in summer storms, every sunrise and sunset and the glorious phases of the moon every month-year after year.
Why do I find birds fascinating? For the same reason that an estimated 96 million Americans-around 35% of the nation’s population watch and feed birds-fascination. And one of the personal reasons for bird fascination is found in the Bible.
I have another reason. Let me share it with you. Think about the phrase, “Your heavenly Father feeds them.” Yes, American bird feeding is a significant annual business. But all the bird feed in America has its source in things only God controls. No farmer can make seeds germinate and grow. The coot relies completely on the food found in the lakes and wetlands of its habitat. A coot’s diet is aquatic plants and in season, insects, even snails, tadpoles and salamanders. We humans rarely feed coots. God feeds them. The birds in the 2019 photos who appeared in the fall 2024 photos have been living on the provision of God. No one needed to remember to “feed the coots!” Yes, look at the birds. “Your heavenly Father feeds them.”
Have you realized the other message in the context of this Bible passage? Jesus spoke these words to those of us who worry and are anxious about life. There is great comfort here. Jesus, Creator of the universe, reminds us not to worry. Do not worry about what you will eat or drink, or what you will wear. Life is more than about these basic needs. In the most powerful truth, Jesus reminds us that to God you and I are of much greater value than the “birds of the air.” At the end of this passage Jesus asked this powerful fact centered question: “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” Got the answer? Right-no one can.
Crazy as a Coot? No. Look at the coot. Realize, this is God’s earth. Our lives are in His hands. We are forever safe with Him.