coot at 7400'

[onpoint]

Dog and I are on a knob above my wife. I hear a shot. She calls out "I don't know what I just shot"
Of course I holler "what?"
"Think it's a coot."
Again I say "what?" We're on a ridge top at 7400 ft.
She calls out "It's a coot."
So the dog and I head down to her, she's looking on the ground at a coot. It "flushed" out of some sage, looked at first glance like a blue - she shot it as soon as it "flushed".
Probably a sickly one - never seen a coot "flush" from a sage/doug fir hillside - probably never will again.
Guess one should watch for these oddities in the split second before pulling the trigger - never know when you'll see a mudhen on a ridgetop
See interesting things afield.......

Sorry to interrupt the presidential politics.

 

[7mm08mo]

Now thats odd. Leave it to a coot to be found at 7400 feet.

 

[Rat Fink]

I have flushed a coot off of a ridge near White Sulphur Springs on two occasions a few years apart. Roughly the same elevation and type of vegetation as your picture. Very odd.

 

[Mason326]

That's hilarious. Seen them in a walmart parking lot before and caught one by hand wandering around a retail shopping center once, weird little guys. I know a guy who could shoot a coot in the sahara. Somehow that seems like a curse...

 

[TRS_Montana]

Those alpine coots are as good eating as a guy can get.

 

[MThuntr]

Those alpine coots are as good eating as a guy can get.

Oh yeah sauted with a handful of Redman for sweet flavor

 

[406LIFE]

Better have a duck stamp, they are covered under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Also means non-toxic shot...

 

[Mason326]

Oh yeah sauted with a handful of Redman for sweet flavor

That guy I said could shoot a coot in a desert... His mom is from India and is the only person I've ever known on this planet who could cook a coot up and make it taste good. Some kind of voodoo magic, she got my buddy who doesn't even eat duck to love it but she won't share her secret recipe because she enters competitions with it!!

 

[Mason326]

Somehow I think most a reasonable GW would understand why you thought it was a blue and shot it with lead shot... in sage.... at 7400'.... in September....

 

[Doublecluck]

Nice coot... Looks like last November based on the picture.

 

[JDH]

That's interesting. It was probably higher than the elevation they fly when they migrate.. so it had to walk.

 

[Doublecluck]

That's interesting. It was probably higher than the elevation they fly when they migrate.. so it had to walk.

Coot are one of the highest flying migratory waterfowl I recall reading somewhere about a plane hitting some at 20000.

 

[406LIFE]

Coot are one of the highest flying migratory waterfowl I recall reading somewhere about a plane hitting some at 20000.

I remember reading something like this in one of the many waterfowl mags I get. These birds really get a bad rap, I find them very edible, plentiful, and just really interesting birds. I saved one in the freezer last year to go up on the wall.

 

[NR_Hunter]

Somehow I think most a reasonable GW would understand why you thought it was a blue and shot it with lead shot... in sage.... at 7400'.... in September....

You'd think so, but I know Conservation Officers that would pinch their own grandmas.

 

[Mason326]

Good point, I know the type!