Eagle Pond Rallids

These are two of the many rallids on Eagle Pond: there are loads of coots and moorhens about, and it means that there is quite a lot of bickering... Most of the bickering is between older adults and the young adults (or almost adult juveniles) which are more slender, and definitely more picked on. These are both young adults (hatched earlier this year) and so mooch about trying to evade older ones. I like the way that they tip their head sideways to use their beaks as scissors for cropping grass.
Here is a relatively small moorhen (with adult plumage) escaping from an older, angrier one.

I had a lovely time at the common, but was upset (as usual) by the tackle problems. The juvenile cormorant that I mentioned last Sunday definitely does still have line emerging from its beak which isn't good. I couldn't tell yesterday as it was just lying on the island (in a way that I've not seen before, which concerned me). When I returned today, it was still lying in its strange way, and . Just before I left, Little G. was dabbling at the edge of the pond, and got some line stuck in its beak; I had to leave, but it was still trailing when I left. I hope that it was just caught across its beak, not actually stuck. Argh. I'll check on Wednesday.

I've uploaded some uplifting Goosle shots:
Little G. peacefully pottering around on the water.
Mr. & Mrs., with Mrs. looking totally goofy....