Kidjibroon the Eurasian coot—
all black with white nose and beak,
the size of a small hen,
and equipped with sharp web-like toes—
is a feisty bird,
kind of spear-like.

He almost never backs down
from a fight.

He will churn the water with his feet,
or run across it like a dart
into the fray.
He will fluff up his tail
and click his throat in warning.
And, if needed, he will lean back
and stick his claws into the
breast of his opponent—mostly only
other coots or swamphens
meet this latter fate.

He will take on any other coot
and ducks of any size.
And they are happy to fight in pairs.

Sometimes though,
it’s possible to see another side.

From time to time he’ll
hang around maali the swan
who’s dipping down,
pulling up grass
from the bottom of the lake.
The coot will wait and take whatever
the swan leaves behind.

Sometimes he’ll scurry off to the side
when a raptor buzzes over,
like a harrier or hobby or kite.

But the times I’ve seen him get
the biggest fright,
is when something comes at him
from underneath.

The coot is also a kind of diver,
though one that jumps up
in the air, then struggles under,
before re-emerging
as a bubble would,
floating to the top.
All in all he seems too buoyant,
but he doesn’t let that stop him.

There are, however,
proper diving ducks in this lake,
such as kadar the musk duck,
and boodoo the bluebill.

I have seen kadar come up under
a Pacific black duck
and, if I recall right,
under kidjibroon too.

But today I saw it most clearly.
A coot was sitting on the water’s surface
somewhere near the middle of the lake.
Suddenly he jumped up and
started swimming around in circles
while clucking
and preening himself,
seemingly trying
to shake something off—
his fright, most likely.

For some reason it was immediately clear
that something had come up underneath him.
I waited and waited, thinking it must
have been kadar the musk.

I waited some more,
and then—I had to almost squint—
there appeared
a tiny bird—a
grebe—likely Australasian—
looking around
with little eyes—
popping up
from beneath.