Cootling...

... swimming in mercury?

Ahhh, not having to choose is wonderful! Thank you ceridwen; here is the cootling you requested! Although, I didn't quite think it through, and I still had millions of cootling pictures to choose from. I wanted to blip a squawking cootling, but then I was rather taken by the rather mercurial background in this one. Hum. Can't win. It was still nice not to have to choose subjects, at the very least.

I was pleased, also, to get photographic evidence of the coots' truculence: a series of photos of a coot chasing a moorhen. Moorhens have such an apt nickname: "skitty coots". I think it sums them up well, because they're rails like coots, but are considerably more, um, skittish. Although, if I was constantly being attacked by coots, I doubt I'd maintain what little confidence and composure they do muster.

I also snapped the cootlings squabbling over food: one found a bean or fruit of some sort which all of the others wanted, but in the end they all abandoned it because it was far too big for them to eat. Another pair were fighting over the same piece of grass, and I got a photo of them each with one end in their mouths (like the spaghetti scene from Lady and the Tramp).
I could spend hours just watching and photographing them...
Oh, I do...