Water Rail

Our local nature reserve was boasting breeding Water Rails, so thought I'd pay them a visit. These are notoriously difficult birds to see as they tend to skulk around in dense waterside vegetation - in fact the only photo I've ever taken of one is pre-digital. So today I was more than happy when I walked in the hide and there right in front of me was this guy. Actually he was a little too close, but it seemed churlish to ask him to move back a bit to give a better background to the photo.