Wednesday 11 August 2010

Beautiful Birds (7): Cute Coots


I spent my teenage years in rural Norfolk,
the setting for part of Arthur Ransome's Coot Club tale
about the Callum children.

Perhaps this is why I find Coots fascinating.


The female above
was photographed at the National Botanic Garden of Wales
some weeks ago.


This young Coot was spotted
in May, along the banks of the Thames.

We also saw those controversial Green Parakeets,
but they flew around in a frenzy and were too fast for the camera!


Mother Coots must be adept
at making the most of the material to hand.

It may be a case of the 'town mouse' and the 'country mouse'
(to mix metaphors for a moment);
but if I was a young Coot,
I know which nest I would choose!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are amazing photographs! Thank you for sharing part of your world with me. Have a great day.

Crafty Green Poet said...

What excellent shots of the youngster and such odd looking youngsters coots are!

Rosie Nixon Fluerty said...

Oh look at that little coot. I've never seen one of these before Caroline - its like its got a little furry scarf around its neck.


Caroline when I was taking the photo of the comma I had not got a clue what type of butterfly it was - if I had known it was a comma I would have waited around for one to show the little white marking under its wing. There were quite a few of them in the garden - incredible how their numbers are increasing here in Scotland - seemingly they once were extinct in Scotland.

Mary said...

What a cute little thing that coot is! so funny and colorful.