I had the same thought Gary, and I believe Coots are well known for killing
their own chicks too. However I guess this reputation may be why the Grebe
was so aggressive - it knew its chicks were in danger!
Regards,
Chris
On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 12:46 PM, Gary Davidson <> wrote:
> I find this interesting since the coot was the victim! I recall watching a
> small pond that had both a family of Mallards and a family of [American]
> Coots. One of the Mallard chicks apparently came a little too close to the
> coots. One of the adult coots swam up to the mallard chick and pecked at
> its head repeatedly until it killed it. The Mallard hen made no attempt to
> intervene. Once the chick was dead, the coot calmly swam back to his/her
> brood!
> Gary
> Nakusp, B.C.
> Canada
>
>
>
> --- On Thu, 1/20/11, Denise Goodfellow <> wrote:
>
>
> From: Denise Goodfellow <>
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Royal ³ set-to² in Royal Park
> To: "Chris Sanderson" <>, "jenny spry" <
> >
> Cc: "Birding Aus" <>
> Received: Thursday, January 20, 2011, 6:22 PM
>
>
> Any parent who's ever had a child threatened knows the feeling! I agree.
> Great photo. Thanks Jen and also Chris.
> Denise
>
>
> on 21/1/11 10:34 AM, Chris Sanderson at wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > We have put Jen's fantastic experience with the Grebes and Coots up on
> > Bird-O:
> >
> http://bird-o.com/2011/01/21/right-royal-%E2%80%9Cset-to%E2%80%9D-in-royal-par
> > k/
> >
> > Jen that photo is amazing!
> >
> > Regards,
> > Chris Sanderson
> >
> > On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 3:46 PM, jenny spry <>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi everyone,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> With the first afternoon of sunshine in a while I drove to the storm
> water
> >> basin in Royal Park, Melbourne, just near home. I had seen a family of
> >> Australasian Grebe there and wanted some photos of their tiger-striped
> >> chicks. The Grebe were still there and also a family of Coot, also just
> >> itching to have their photos taken.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> The two families drifted around with their young, slowly coming closer
> >> together, and I imagined the chance of a photo of both families
> >> harmoniously
> >> feeding young in the warm afternoon sun. Suddenly though, one of the
> coot
> >> started screaming and paddling frantically backwards, spray going
> >> everywhere. Huge fish I thought, or perhaps an enormous eel no,
> obviously,
> >> a
> >> crocodile someone had dropped down a local sewer (I've read about that
> >> happening!).
> >>
> >>
> >> What it actually was though was an irate adult Grebe that had felt its
> >> chicks were threatened. It had dived and come up under the coot and it
> not
> >> only attacked, but chased the panicked coot from under water for some 10
> >> metres or more before surfacing and attacking again, from behind and
> above.
> >> As a friend said when she saw the image; ³that is one agro bird!²
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I will put the image on the BOCA site tonight but right now I need to go
> >> back out in the sun with a cup of tea.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Cheers all
> >>
> >>
> >> Jen
> >>
> >> To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> >> send the message:
> >> unsubscribe
> >> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> >> to:
> >>
> >> http://birding-aus.org
> >>
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