OXNARD : 50 Coots Shot in Bid to Halt Infestation

The annual coot shoot is under way at Oxnard’s River Ridge Golf Course, with city parks and recreation workers trading fertilizer for shotguns in a bid to eradicate the migratory birds that infest the golf course each winter.

Gunfire rang out across the 12th and 14th holes starting about 6:30 a.m. Monday and continued in spurts for about half an hour, homeowners said. In the end, about 50 coots lay dead.

Michael Henderson, park superintendent for the city Parks and Recreation Department, said shooting is just one of many ways the city has tried to dissuade the coots from migrating to the golf course from the north each year.

The city has a permit from the U. S. Department of Fish and Wildlife that allows it to shoot 400 coots each migratory season.

“We’re trying to shoot a few of them now, hoping that the remaining few of them that are here now will leave,” Henderson said. “The thought is that the new ones coming down, migrating later in the year, will not come to River Ridge if there are no coots here.”

As many as 10,000 to 15,000 coots have arrived at the golf course during past migrations, which run from October to April, Henderson said. The birds eat the greens and defecate on the course, he said.

Laurel Valley Place resident Sarah Hutton said her biggest problem with the shooting was that no one had notified her ahead of time.

“I’d just kind of like to know they’re going to do it before they do, so I don’t have to think there’s somebody shooting at our house,” Hutton said.

Henderson said the city notified the area property management associations this year, hoping that word would filter to the individual homeowners. He said property owners who live next to the area where the birds congregate will probably be notified directly the next time shooting is planned.