Coot club

A canal-side walk produced a rare chance to take something other than buildings! I stumbled on two families of coots. Coots (according to wiki) are medium-sized birds which are members of the rail family.

Coots are aggressively territorial during the breeding season, as I can testify! A poor moor-hen was attacked viciously whilst I was there.

But coots have memories for me too - when I was younger (very much younger!!) my favourite book was Coot Club by Arthur Ramsome. I much preferred it to the better-known Swallows and Amazons and had a hard-back copy that was a prized possession.

Coot Club - written in 1934! - is set not in the Lakes but on the Norfolk Broads and features Dick and Dorothea not John, Susan, Titty, and Roger who I never really warmed to. Well how could you relate to a girl called Titty! (sorry!!)