Newsletter
Canal Confrontation
During
the last week of March, I was walking along the Driffield Canal looking
for early migrants when I saw a pair of grey wagtails near the town lock.
Would they stay to breed this year, I wondered? I then noticed a coot
busying itself with a nest which had been constructed on a branch
overhanging the water. A second coot was nearby.
As
I watched, a stoat approached down the bank and started to walk along the
branch to the nest. The second coot noticed what was happening and made
repeated attacks on the stoat, driving it away along the waters edge. The
stoat climbed back over the top of the bank and into the adjacent field
with the coot giving up its attack.
However the stoat almost immediately reappeared carrying a young rabbit in its mouth and strutted past the now stationary coot, no doubt waving two fingers at its former assailant.