But the tables can be turned. A few years ago, I reported on this line watching a water rat harass and then drown a coot. It then dragged it to the shore and had a chicken (?) meal. David Rosalky From: Susanne Gardiner [
Sent: Monday, 10 November 2014 9:38 AM
Cc: COG Chatline
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Eurasian Coot chicks. I have observed Coots to be quite aggressive whether they have chicks or not. In England I watched them chase, kill and abandon duck chicks (several occasions) and also frogs (once). Those were Coots that didn't seem to have direct family members around. Hi, I am wondering just how territorial and aggressive coots might be against ducklings. Apparently there were 8 wood ducklings at the North Watson wetlands midweek, but none left by Friday, nor any sign of the parent ducks. Might the parent coots have drowned the ducklings? They sometimes turn on one of their own young and look like will drown it, the way you sometimes see ducks doing to each other. It's possible the ducklings all met with another misadventure, but I am not sure what. They are well protected in that pond. On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 9:13 PM, Megan Mears <m("gmail.com","majurabirds");" target="_blank">> wrote: There are 5 cootlets at North Watson wetland, about a fortnight old now (recorded in blitz). Already they are habituated to small children and have a taste for white bread, though they also eat unbelievably skanky things the parents find at the bottom of the pond. The two parents are feeding all day long, are very territorial against the PBDs and quite frankly look exhausted. Megan
On Monday, November 3, 2014, John Harris <m("biblesociety.org.au","john.harris");" target="_blank">> wrote:
Very accessible and very photographable little Eurasian Coot chicks (with their red faces and all) at Crace Pond half an hour ago. I only post this because it is so rare to see them (for whatever reason) and photograph them. There was apparently only ONE breeding record last year, despite them being the most abundant bird in COG records last year. So if you want to photograph them here’s your chance. Children were feeding the ducks etc and the mother was teaching them to come for bread. From: Julie Clark <>
Date: Monday, 3 November 2014 2:28 pm
To: Lia Battisson <>
Cc: chatline <>
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] chicks Plenty of Dusky Moorhen chicks on Yerrabi too. On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 1:45 PM, Lia Battisson <> wrote: At present Eurasian Coot and Dusky Moorhen have chicks on the pond which is bounded by Ginninderra, Braybrooke and Masterman in Belconnen. As we don’t have any photos of the chicks on the gallery, it would be great if someone with a good camera could go out and capture a nice shot of them.
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