Bird of the Month: Coot

And in odd scatt’red pitts, the flags and reads beneath, The coot, bald, else clean black, that whiteness it doth bear Upon the forehead starred, the water-hen doth wear Upon her little tail in one small feather set. Michael Drayton, from Poly-olbion

‘Even old Harry in Suffolk never brought me a coot. He did once bring in a magpie!’ says Paul Langley of Cramers, York Way, Islington, epitome of a ‘Traditional English Family Butchers’.

So much for the 1st-september opening of the coot and moorhen (water hen) shooting season, both such unlikely game birds: loath to fly, people-friendly at hint of food, pond-weed feeders (especially coots); and the coot so unappetising, with its ‘bald’ head patch and huge lobed feet, as if God absentmindedly gave it frog legs.

The coot’s sharp beak and calls are enough to send bigger birds such as mallard on their way. Internecine war is endemic, two birds leaning back and striking fiercely with feet and wings; or one attempting to drown another, 10 seconds the limit they can hold their breath.

They mostly dive to feed, heaving weed to the surface on their backs. Nest heaps are often balanced on a submerged support and can be washed away.

Arthur Ransome’s 1934 Norfolk Broads adventure story, Coot Club, has the club’s Bird Protection Society saving a coot’s nest from being destroyed by the yobbish Hullabaloos’ gross motor cruiser.

Building encourages sophisticated co-operation, reeds or sticks carried by a pair like builders placing a girder. Co-operation can be communal: flocks ward off birds of prey by collectively kicking up a fountain field.

After a week or so, young are jealously divided between the parents, sometimes to the fatal cost of a chick.

The name coot comes from Dutch koet and the mass of Britain’s birds migrate from Holland, 26,000 residents – boosted in winter to 205,000.

Mark Andrew, of Deepdale Marsh on the north Norfolk coast, remembers the shoots, normally a one-off in January, dying out by the late 1970s.

Hickling Broad was especially famous, with up to six drives in a day depending on the wind, the birds driven by a fleet of punts, the guns in punts or hides.

Mark says, ‘Coots are strong flyers and can rise to a height surprisingly quickly. The guns in the boats got the best shooting. The meat is very dark but not unpleasant.’

Although associated as food with the workers, coots were held in high esteem as a sporting quarry – royalty, titled and landed gentry making up the guns.

The last big coot shoot on Hickling Broad was in January 1961, with Prince Philip one of the party.

Coot-shooting continues in the USA. The internet provides ample evidence and also recipes. A freezer bag is advised and breasts should be stripped of skin and fat within two hours. Toxins soon turn the dead meat rancid.