Punk chick

This afternoon we took another walk around Connaught Water daughter #2 and I: another week gone by and still she's waiting!

There was plenty of activity on the water today though: swans, Mandarins, Canada geese, mallards and several families of coots. The coot chicks caught our eye because of the extraordinary ruff of bright colour that they sport in their early weeks. This is, apparently, designed to catch the mother's eye. It seems that coot mothers favour the chicks with the brightest plumage and so feed them more!

Look at those amazing feet too: long lobed toes that are strong enough to allow them to run across the water.