Cootlings

Four little cootlings have arrived! They weren't there two days ago but already they've been scrambling up and down the nest and into the water. I watched the dad come and go to feed them -- the little ones wobble over to the edge of the nest and their beaks barely touch, just the tips. I'm sure it looked like the dad was trying to teach them to dive at one point, but they weren't at all interested...

They are odd-looking offspring as they don't look like their parents at all -- they have bald black and red heads and tufts of orangey-red and yellow feathers around their neck and only a dash of white at the tip of their beaks. You'd never guess they would grow into coots one day!