American Coot

Haha, Ping has recently self-adopt a pet...okay, okay, that is so unlikely. Mum would never buy that.

Ping 'found' a weird looking duck by the Red Cedar River on campus a few weeks ago. Ever since then, Ping have been going back to check it out every few days. When Ping first saw it, Ping thought it was some kind of bird but the more you look at it, the more it looks like a duck. A friend mentioned that it is an American Coot so Ping look it up and found that it actually is a type of waterbird, although commonly mistaken for a duck. However, it is in a different order, evolving more recent than the regular looking ducks. It seems to occupy a certain rock by the river bank and is just oblivious to the regular ducks. They swim all around it and it just does not budge or even acknowledge their presence.

Unlike the regular ducks, it does not have webbed feet. In fact, its feet looks like chicken feet (haha, according to Ping's lack of knowledge about birds lah). It is probably because of such thin feet that makes it look clumsy when swimming in the water. It doesn't seem to swim as fast, or maybe it was just chillin' when Ping was there yesterday evening. Have yet to see it fly or walk on land but it is definitely capable of both. Maybe Ping will see it do something different tomorrow!!

Wonder how is this Coot going to mate this coming mating season? Ping have yet to see any other similar ones. Maybe more will come as the weather warms up...or maybe this will fly away. Hmm...hope not as Ping is going to miss watching out for it when Ping goes for walks by the river!

Here's a video that Ping took yesterday evening.