Ruffled

After two miserable grey wet days, today's blue skies and sunshine were welcome relief. After doing my roadie duties this morning for Wifie's second Qi Gong workshop of the week, and then taking Gus out for his lunchtime constitutional, I headed for Leighton Moss.

The coots are the grumpy clowns of the wetland bird world, and they are super-abundant at the Moss at the moment. This perch seen from the Causeway Hide is much favoured by them, and there are frequent squabbles for this position. This one was using the wind to flick its plumage out like a black feather duster. After a good ruffle, the feathers all snap back into their rightful places, how do they do that? One thing I hadn't noticed before is how much Nuttall's Pondweed they eat, and since this is a non-native and domineering submerged plant, that has to be a good thing for keeping it under control. Something else I hadn't noticed before is that coots have yellow thighs - who knew that?

After the exertions of the last few days, fatigue caught up with me this morning. I was better for a few hours of Wifie's workshop. I do think my energy levels are much better now than they were before I finished work, but today was a reminder that I am still not back to where I was before 2016.