A common waterbird wherever there are large stretches of water, the one on the left was photographed at a local Country Park.

A week later, we came across two families of Coots on a local river, one set of chicks being somewhat more advanced than the others.

Photographs (above and right) - May 2003

At another nature reserve the Coots were competing with the Mallards to charm the local children into feeding them.

Photograph below - October 2004

12 years later, our identification skills had clearly not improved, and I needed help to identify the bird below as another young Coot.

Photographs below - October 2016