Found mainly in still or slow moving water, the darter spends a lot of its time drying out. It looks totally ragged just after it has settled on a rock or low tree branch.
However, after a while all the feathers settle back into place. Its shape is rather matronly with a long graceful neck attached to a rather dumpy body.
That large body is only seen when the darter is out of the water. When spotted in the water, it has a snake-like appearance with its body fully submerged. Its head slips below the water with scarcely a ripple and it often reappears just as suddenly and just as unexpectedly.
Of course, every now and then that reappearance is a little more noticeable.
Ærchies Archive - Digital Detritus 
If loch Ness has these birds, I’m pretty sure where the monster sightings come from.
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that last shot is grrreat archie
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In Germany we have the term “Fischkopp” (fishhead) for people like me who come from the coast. Now I know what they mean.
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@ Kymk, I think they would need to be larger but after a night consuming uisge-beatha, anything would look like the Loch Ness Monster 🙂
Nursem, Thanks for that. I felt it was good but that it needed a context. Perhaps it doesn’t.
Sebastian, From my high school German, I would have thought “Kopf” rather than “Koff” – or is this a regional variant?
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Ee-by-gum, lad
I’ve just come back from t’Beck
Oi tink it reflects the operation of Grimm’s Law in Indo-European Languages :
Some use “P”
eg Froggisch – Pied, Greek – oktoPodia; Punjabi – Pun [5]
where others use “F”
eg Englisch -Foot, Germanisch – Fuss, Funf [5]
Senoot, lad, th’are rate
[say nought, lad, thou art all right]
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@Archie, yes, “Kopp” is a dialect from northern Germany. I could bore you with some historical facts like that this dialect is actually an own language (“plattdeutsch”) whis was spoken in many parts of europe but is dieing now, therefore there are laws to protect it (like the local government in northern Germany has to answer forms in plattdeutsch if you demand it) etc. blabla… ^^ Plattdeutsch is mostly connected to old fishermen or their women sitting in front of their houses and “snaaking” about better days, I think you would like it. Oh well, I could go on for hours *lol*
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@ Herr g eaGle; I thank you for your lucid and informative explanation. I wonder if it is a grim prospect that the majority of the world will begin to speak with a Chinese accent?
@Sebastian, those Northern fishermen could well be descendants of the original saxons who invaded England back in the 7th century. Well, there were Angles, Saxons and Jutes who all invaded after the Romans lost their influence.
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