Coot: Hector(ing) on Ice

Large (if you dare).
I found it very hard to choose my blip today: this is definitely not my best quality picture, but just look at the brute? How on earth did coots become such strange (ASBO) creatures?! Why is it so furious?

The local ponds had all frozen over (at least in part) and I always find it amusing to watch the birds scrabbling over the surface, and skidding as they land or take off. I enjoyed a very chilly couple of photo sessions: the reflections on the ice made low flying look amazing, and the coots were still chasing each other around, but on ice it looked more like über-awkward figure skating...

The light was beautiful when I was over at Clapham Common just after midday: I got pictures of gulls flying low and landing, shovelers looking super-iridescent in the bright wintry sunlight, and coots standing around looking miffed. I also snapped a mostly black pigeon on a fence (with positively spring-like light): the black plumage really made its iridescent neck colours look amazing.
I took this photo at Wandsworth Common in the late afternoon as the sun was going down (hence the warm colour on the ice): the ice was rather thin, and was making amazing creaking and crackling sounds as the birds moved around on it. The creaking sound was reminiscent of the sound that rails (railroads, not members of the Rallidae family) make as a train approaches! This coot was obviously the dominant one, and was menacing a couple of smaller (probably younger) ones: this one ("Hector") had just stopped chasing one of his victims, but he still had his head down which is an aggressive posture. I got some pictures of their chases, but this one shows off the ridiculous feet better (the others were silhouettes).