A few days ago, I kayaked over to the riverbank to check out the wild blackberries. The bushes were cut back last year and only a few branches survived. While checking out the blackberries, I noticed a coot carrying a piece of stick in its mouth. There must be nest somewhere.
I followed the coot to the dock closest to the parking lot. At the far end sits a lonely boat. There was a nest next to it. I glided over to take a peek.
Coot sitting on its nest
A coot was sitting on it. I left wondering how many eggs there were. Next day, a friend and I kayaked over to check it. The coot wasn't there. We saw six eggs. I was hooked. I went again the day after. This time, there were only five eggs! Uh oh, what happened? It takes 21 days to incubate, per Wikipedia. I'll wait patiently to see how many will hatch.
These must be the parents
Going out to check the blackberries
A few bunches here and there.
Meantime, we'll have to deal with the crazy hot weather - sunny and HOT (mid 90s) - for the weekend and the Fourth of July holiday on Tuesday. So far today, we've had sunny skies, cloudy skies, thunderstorm, heavy rain, and now back to sunny, and it's only 3pm.
around 7:30 am
Clouds, thunderstorm followed by heavy rain around noon
Back to sunny around 1pm
I just saw the news which said that "Chattanooga is under a Code Red air quality alert due to wildfire smoke from Canada." No wonder the sky was so hazy yesterday. Here's that picture.
Hazy skyline yesterday from the Canada wildfire smoke
Happy 4th of July! Stay cool and stay safe, y'all! Check out this video of the coots.
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.JPG "Small is beautiful")
