We sat right next to a boat up in the North Channel when the "authorities" came aboard the boats and dropped die in toilets and one boat flushed out red die. He was taken away. We later learned that he got fined big time and the boat chained until changes were made. By the way, the boater was not from the USA. Canada does not want your poop!

Since mass die-offs of this species have been reported in the past few years in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Wisconsin, that could explain our lack of coots now. Either "our" migrant Coots come from the northern plains or the eastern population (which has always been low) suffered die-offs that weren't reported.