A Coot Amongst Tufted Ducks
Posted: 13 March 2022
I always used to think that if you saw a Moorhen then a Coot wouldn't be far away. That was in the days when I was sailing my SeaHawk on the Broads. Since moving to Ruston House I have discovered that's not the case. In eight years I only recall seeing a coot on the lake once and I didn't manage to get a photograph of it.
Today was different I did manage to get a picture. It was a fair way down the lake towards the bridge to the island and tucked in amongst the reeds most of the time, so I failed to get a really crisp picture, but this is good enough to be certain of the identification.
Perhaps there have been coots around more often than I realised as today's example could have been easy to fail to notice amongst all the tufted ducks. We've had a group of up to ten on the lake since the beginning of the month and in the photo above you see the coot emerging from the reeds to rejoin them. It seemed very much part of the group as I first thought it was just another diving duck feeding in the same way as the rest of them.
