Bald as a....

....Coot.

Negative birds

The Coot and Little Egret are almost negatives of each other, one is black with a white bill, the other being white with a black bill (okay, it`s not strictly black, it`s grey!). One is a very common breeder with approximately 46,000 birds present in the whole of the U.K. except the extreme north-west, the other is a fairly new arrival to our shores with less than a dozen birds being reported before 1950, but now there is thought to be about 450 breeding pairs in 11 counties in England and Wales.

Complete polar opposites.

Coot at sunset

As bald as a Coot

Digiscoped using Lumix FS15 and Kowa TSN-883 x30

The Coot is a water bird that is familiar to all of us. Frequently seen in flocks and often in the company of ducks, swans and other water birds, picking up discarded food or food that is disturbed by other birds. It is generally found on lakes, reservoirs, flooded gravel pits and large,slow flowing rivers.

In summer the population is around 46,000 in Britain and approximately 8,600 in Ireland and at present this seems to be stable, if not slightly increasing. In the winter this figure increases with birds that have come from northern and eastern Europe. The oldest bird survived for 18 years.

The saying `as bald as a coot` derives from this bird. The Coot is not bald, but has a white head. In old English the word `bald` has several meanings, one of which is `streaked or marked with white`, hence the expression.