Fulica americana Mar 3 Jewel Lake, 5/10 ft., Contra Costa Co. Calif. also look an S shield. On second look I guess the two in the S area do have swoller shields, but not of the largest class. Both of them seem to be feeding largely on floating insects, feeding by tilting and twisting like phalaropes. Two birds are feeding at D13, the S pair, two more at H 13, the north pair, a 5th bird is working from E 15 to C 21. Then the two from D13 moved N, the male to B18 the female to D21, then splattered to F26 where a short battle ensued. The ♀ after the battle and while in display "eackled," the other bird did not display or make a note. At the same time, another ♀ note came from a bird at K 20, whose mate was sharing the boat with a goose. There is a golden eye, 1 or 2 canvasbacks, 2 suddies and a Canada goose on the lake in addition to 5 (or 6) coots today. When I moved down towards the dam a bird with a S shield had a bird with an SS shield at bay. Now a few minutes later a full scaled chap was in force, from K 27 but breaking off at G 28 before actually attacking the bird. The bird doing the chasing is the one that had a pin but has lost it. Both of these N pair birds seem to be feeding quite a bit on cat-tail tubers. I have not seen the other birds doing this.