Coots on Como!

Right now, with the world on lockdown, nature is my only escape. I try to get out every day, and this time I noticed the coots with their weird football-shaped bodies, white triangular bills and head-bobbing motion as they swim. They have most un-ducklike feet, long-legged and spongy. I've never seen a baby coot, a "cootlet", but how I long to! Today I saw our first three Canada goose goslings, so perhaps there is hope for a renewal in these most desperate of times.

COOT FEET!

This is the first time I got a good look at a coot's feet, which are big spongy things that are nothing like the feet of ducks or herons or anything else. They're just weird! But I like them, and I like the way they disappear into the water, the conviction with which they do it, the - commitment. The head goes down first, then - thwip! 

I haven't posted too many of my hundreds of nature videos - some of which I think are quite good - just because I seem to get side-tracked. This is all that is left of a "series" which just never happened. The videos are still on YouTube, they haven't gone anywhere, at least until they close my account for piracy (10-second clips of movies that have been in the public domain for 50 years). So my series will no doubt happen eventually. Or not.

Hybrids in love

The continuing saga of Bosley, the magpie duck/mallard hybrid, who has finally found love in Belinda - another hybrid. At least, we're pretty sure, with her pied markings and flipped-up tail. And she has a green bill, which I've never heard of! Every time we go to Como Lake, we see the two of them together, but there is always a third presence - a mallard drake who just hangs around them. At one point, he seemed very attached to Bosley and even chased him all over the park, while Bosley ran in terror. Is this a romantic duck triangle, or what?

Eagle steals salmon from BBQ!

"Flakes easily with a fork. It's ready"

One duck on a beautiful lake

One of my more poetical videos. This was an experiment in adding music which worked out fairly well.

Flickers, jays and squirrels: is this a McDonald's, or what?

This is Baby's First Video, the first time I ever tried to work with the video camera: and all at once, a Steller's jay, a squirrel and a flicker showed up! After this I more or less figured out how to work with a tripod, so the worst of the shakes ended. Gifs to follow!

Itty-bitty, fuzzy-wuzzy ducklings: DUCKLINGS ON LAND!

Part 2 of our Duckling Adventure! The fluffies preen themselves on shore.

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