Meanwhile

There are some coots down on the canal. They have built (and keep on building, it's getting ever more massive, even though the eggs have been in it a week already) a nest which is a curious mixture of natural materials and any vaguely linear rubbish they can get their beaks on, lately including a bunch of bright yellow braided-parcel-band stuff. The enclosure they've built it on the floating-log edge of is full of plastic bags and takeaway boxes and empty bottles and all sorts of shite. I can't work out if this is a miracle of adaptability or just coots being really stupid. Will the cootlets make it through without getting into a deathly tangle with a plastic bag, or overdosing on nibbled styrofoam? Watch this space...