Coot

For years I thought that coots lived only in the realm of the imagination. Vaguely I believed they might have existed at one time, but had sadly gone the way of the dodo or the unicorn. My children had a game when they were small, initiated by me, whereby they would romp through the trees at Barna Wood or Coole Park looking for coots in the high branches. They would call and call but would never find one. Then one year a friend of my husband’s came back for a visit from Japan where he had been living for a long time. He was young to have lost so much hair and his forehead was white and shiny. Having wandered off, this friend also became the object of a search and somehow the game was never the same. The expressions “Old Coot” and “As bald as a coot” were introduced and after that, I always imagined a large bird perched on a tree top with this man’s face on it.
Ireland seemed to have more references than most to this special bird. I had to stop every time we reached Coote Hill in County Cavan. Besides being a spectacular part of the country, it had that fascinating name. I was sure that I would find the bird in leafy trees and shrubs there. Not a sight! Then, leafing through a glossy women’s magazine, I saw portraits of the Coote children taken by Anthony Armstrong Jones. Not a feather to be seen among the heirs of Coote Hall.
Next I heard a nature programme saying that both the corn crake in farm fields and the coots of the Grand canal were in trouble. “Aha “, I said. For it to be having difficulty meant they had to exist. I mentioned it to my neighbour who replied, “of course they exist, they are just little old water hens.”
It suddenly hit me. I had been looking in trees when all along this creature was quite visible to me in the water, and how strange it was in appearance. I could well understand why those expressions were used in relation to it. Awkward looking beside ducks with its chicken feet, it’s hen-like body and smooth white forehead, it looked like it should be in a cartoon. Although timid and not as enthusiastic about a piece of bread thrown over the bank, the coot could be quite aggressive and do a duck great damage with its sharp beak. It didn’t appear to be reluctant to take on anything. Of course, it may have been protecting its nest or young.