There was a short post on a Great Black-Backed Gull that has a history
of killing coots at Cape May Point from the CMBO website "View from Cape:
Recent
Sightings" link...
.
http://cmboviewfromthecape.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-11-06T23%3A02%3A00-04%3A00
Scroll down to the October 23rd, 2010 entry. We know there are many GBBGs at
Stewart.
Could this be one possibilty???
Dave Nicosia
Johnson City, NY
________________________________
From: Dave Nutter <nutter.d...@me.com>
To: cayugabirds-L@cornell.edu
Sent: Sun, November 14, 2010 7:35:33 PM
Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Threat to COOTS at Stewart Park?
On Saturday afternoon between 2 & 2:30 I was at Stewart Park, some of the time
with Ken Rosenberg.
We saw 2 carcases in the water fairly far out. One I'm not sure of the ID.
The
second, definitely a Coot,
I didn't notice until a Great Black-backed Gull was working on it and tipped it
up to show the distinctive
lobed toes. I saw no struggle and didn't notice the gull carry it in, so I'm
not sure why I didn't notice the
second carcase at first. Great Black-backed Gulls then took interest in the
first carcase as well. I don't
know what killed either of them, but certainly the Great Black-backed Gulls and
the Bald Eagle are likely
candidates, and the Red-tailed Hawk is another possibility. For that matter,
people bring dogs into Stewart
Park even though it is posted "no dogs." There was a Boxer with some people by
a bench on Saturday,
and it was straining against its leash as if eager to grab whatever bird it
could. I know people take dogs
off leash in Stewart Park early in the morning, which is against the City's
leash law as well as park rules.
So maybe dogs and their scofflaw owners are the culprits. Coots look like ripe
meals to be plucked:
plump slow reluctant fliers. I don't know why nobody's seemed to go for them
there before. Their only
defense so far as I know comes from a story, a recipe actually: When you've
shot a Coot, nail the Coot
to a board for three days, then throw away the Coot and eat the board. Coots
are not reputed to taste
very good. I'm not sure this reputation is deserved or more deserved than
certain other waterfowl.
If anyone has real information about what's killing the coots, I am also
interested.
--Dave Nutter
On Nov 14, 2010, at 02:48 PM, Jill Vaughan <jil...@gmail.com> wrote:
Late this morning, at Stewart Park, three of us saw a dead Coot on the shore of
the Swan Pen. It was intact. The post from Marie Reed makes us wonder if
there
is a threat to the Coot population, since the Coot we saw was clearly not the
one Marie saw given the different times we were there. (We did remove a leaded
fishline with hook and bobber from a bush by the pen.)
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