Coots Don’t Scoot : Gunfire at Golf Course Fails to Clear Greens of Annoying Birdies

It was 10 days after the Great Coot Massacre at Oxnard’s River Ridge golf course, and little had changed.

As usual, there were more coots than golfers. The coots were doing what coots always do. And the golfers were complaining about them.

Some of them, in fact, could hardly wait for the shooting to start again sometime next week.

The coot problem has been ongoing at River Ridge since the course opened in 1987. Hundreds of coots like to gather on the putting greens.

They bother golfers by flapping their wings and they mess up the greens with their droppings.

On Jan. 7, city workers armed with shotguns struck back in a dawn raid that left 40 coots dead. But golfers on Friday observed that there were plenty of coots left.

Coot droppings tattooed their golf cart wheels and stuck to their spiked shoes like Silly Putty. Bird dropping odor filled the air.

Every time a player lined up for a long putt, some coot seemed to flap its black wings or dive into a pond.

With their little yellow beaks, the birds appeared determined to uproot and destroy every inch of playable surface in search of a worm.

“It affects you mentally; it affects your concentration,” said golfer Jim Wagstaff as he finished off a forgettable round.

“They ought to poison them birds,” said Chuck Castagna as he crossed the bridge to the 13th hole, an island that is a coot hangout. “They’re a big pain.”

“They ought to shoot ‘em all,” his partner Sal Ferraro said. “They ruin the greens.”

Unfortunately for the golfers, the coot killings last week seemed to have little lasting effect except for one dead bird near by the 18th hole and another bird hopping around with one nearly severed leg.

City officials said they plan to go on another shooting expedition sometime next week and vowed to keep shooting the migrant swamp birds until they get rid of the problem--or until they fill the quota of 400 kills allowed in a permit recently issued by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service.

“We’re out there to provide a quality golf course to attract businesses to the city,” said Oxnard Parks Supt. Michael Henderson. “With all the coots, it’s difficult to do that.”

The coots are black swamp birds that look like chubby ducks. They pay their annual visit to River Ridge in November and stay until May, long outlasting their welcome.

The coots have been coming to River Ridge, a former landfill, well before it became a golf course. Over the years, the coots’ fondness for River Ridge was tested in many ways.

Maintenance workers fired blanks at them. They placed statues of hawks and owls. They chased, screamed and clapped at them, but never got them to move more than a few feet.

Last year the city tried covering the ponds with fishing lines, reasoning that without access to water, the coots would go away. But the coots didn’t leave.

Several birds were injured by the fishing lines as they dived into the water, and animal rights activists complained to the federal authorities. Wildlife officials responded by ordering the city to install thicker, more visible lines.

The new lines were installed and the maiming stopped, but by then coots had it all figured out. They started narrowing the angle of their landings and flying under the lines.

Drastic measures were called for when the birds returned this time, Henderson said.

“We’ll shoot them just about anytime we get enough people together and we get the maintenance people to pick up the dead birds,” he said.

So far, Henderson said, bird lovers have been quiet about the shootings and nobody has complained.

He appeared confident that Oxnard is on the verge of reclaiming its premier golf course.

“Back in 1987 when the golf course opened, the people in charge shot some coots and the effect was not immediate. But the following year, fewer birds came back. That’s what will happen,” he said.

But seasoned River Ridge veterans aren’t so sure.

“I’ve been playing this filthy course for five years,” said George Moorhead, on his way to the 14th. “Let me tell you: There aren’t enough bullets to kill them all. They outbreed us.

“I guarantee you--they’ll keep coming.”