Coot

I mentioned the other day that I was photographing birds in flight on Austin’s Town Lake to practice for an upcoming trip to the Texas coast to photograph birds. It was during that outing that I spotted this American Coot. I especially liked its reflection in the water.

Although it swims like a duck, the American Coot does not have webbed feet like a duck. Instead, each one of the coot’s long toes has broad lobes of skin that help it kick through the water. The broad lobes fold back each time the bird lifts its foot, so it doesn’t impede walking on dry land, though it supports the bird’s weight on mucky ground. American Coots seem to mingle well with other species. This was the case when I was photographing the birds last week. They seemed to get along well with others.

This image was taken with my Canon EOS 5DS using my Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Sports Lens set on 600 mm. The camera was set on Aperture priority mode with the aperture set at f/6.3, shutter speed at 1/500th of a second and the ISO set at 500.

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© 2016 T. Kahler Photography