I go for days without any pictures to share and then when I get a nice bunch of pictures I sit on them for ages. I really need to be more organised sometimes.
Anyway this sequence of pictures, of two coots having a scrap was shot at Brockholes early last Friday morning. They were a long way off so I have had to crop quite a lot to bring the birds into view but you can see there was quite a vicious scuffle going on.
Coots are strange birds and for their size they are unusually aggressive. They will even attack their own young because as parents, once their chicks reach a certain age, they will divide the brood between them and they will fight off and drive away any of the young who are the responsibility of the other parent. In can seem quite harsh when you see an adult bird apparently trying to drown a chick but really, through the division of labour they are ensuring that each chick has the best chance to survive.
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