Coot

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 I have been away for a week in the South of the country. It seems like cheating to post on things that are not in the Eden valley but we called in at the Slimbridge wildfowl centre where I took some photographs. The coots were up close and as we do indeed have coot here it seems fair to include them.

Coots are members of the Rail family and have a featherless frontal shield which in this case is white leading to the expression " as bald as a coot". Coot are aggressively territorial in the breeding season and hatch around 8 young few of which survive (maybe 3 per brood). The parent birds peck at the young who have the temerity to beg for food once they are more than three days old and sometimes drown their own young. This is a common bird on ponds , lakes and canals hereabouts. This photograph also shows the lobed feet - half way between the webbed feet of a duck and the "standard issue bird's feet". This contrasts with the moorhen that is often found in the same habitat but is completely unwebbed and unlobed.

Diary
Autumn has begun in earnest whilst we were away. The trees are starting to lose their leaves, and some have already blown off . We have been welcomed back by rain and low cloud - a real contrast with the South coast where we were where temps were about 5C warmer and the sun was shining!




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