The city of Indio in southern California has given the green light for golf courses to shoot American Coots. Concerns include the potential for other species to be shot, the proximity of the golf courses to residential areas, and the efficacy of shooting as coot control.
No one seems to think that the coots are cooler alive counts as a concern.
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
Aren’t coots one of those rails that kill most of their own young? Or is that moorhens? Either way, they seem like a dangerous bird to piss off.
In October 2012 I had the pleasure of spending the better part of a week at Holter Lake in Montana. The fishing wasn’t great, but I sure enjoyed watching the 400 or so coots that were congregated just offshore by our campsite. They seemed to spend their time swimming back and forth eating the green slimy vegetation that fouls anglers’ lines, and just hanging out. I can’t imagine why they could be perceived as a problem.
Typical short-sightedness, no surprise there. I noticed that among the “non-lethal” methods that might be used alongside, landscape reconstruction isn’t one of them. Humans build habitat areas that appeal to and draw wild animals, then are incensed when the animals use them. Measures like changing the inclines and plantings at water edges are certainly worth more consideration than this idiotic idea which, as we all know, won’t work in the long term anyway.