A quick recap, we had a pair of Coots at Cogglesford, the male was killed and the female hatched 2 eggs but within a couple of days both babies had disappeared. We also had a Coot just past Cogglesford bend. Yesterday the ‘Cogglesford bend’ coot attacked the lone female but was driven off by the Moorhens.
Bear in mind that I cannot identify one coot physically from another but as I walk the Slea almost daily and feed the Moorhens and Coots, they have got to know me and come across the river when I walk by to get a little food from me.
Today I saw a Coot at Cogglesford bend and it came across to get some food, so I assumed this was the normal Coot at this place. I then reached Cogglesford Mill and saw a Coot there BUT it was very standoffish and then I saw ANOTHER Coot near the Mill and both of these seemed to be a pair. Neither came across to get food so I believe they have just arrived and are not our ‘normal’ coots. This assumption was backed up by them both attacking the nearby Moorhens, so I am pretty sure that neither has been on the Slea, at least ‘lately’. Now which is the Coot at Cogglesford bend, is it our lone female or the normal incumbent. The most likely answer is that its the incumbent, so what has happened to our lone female. I will look all along this stretch (and pond) tomorrow to see if I can find another Coot, but if our lone female isn’t around I hope that she fled and did not fight to the death ?
I also only saw 3 of the 4 baby Moorhens at Cogglesford and I looked for quite a long time, so it is possible that we have lost another one. Better news is that there are still 7 baby Moorhens with the other family.
This is a picture of the Moorhens family nest (who have the 3/4 babies) with ‘mum’ already incubating the second ‘batch’ with one of our original babies still liking to be in the nest with her…
…interestingly, the first ‘batch’ of Moorhen babies will help feed the second ‘batch’, now thats what I call a ‘family’ 
Terry