Water Rail

The birds in our garden always seem to go into hiding during the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. Quite a few regulars missing off the count while sat out in the cold this morning. Still a nice hour to just sit and have thoughts clearing in your head.

I like this time, just alone with nature, even if it is while perched on your own windowsill. Something I more or less repeated with the last light of the day, spending an hour down in the Figgate staking out the Water Rail that has been seen increasingly over the last few weeks. It was half an hour or so before I got a glimpse, and then a couple more fleeting appearances. I sat staring at the same area of reeds, and there it was, a slight movement, a ripple moving outwards - camera on the spot, and the Rail obligingly walked straight into shot.

They're beautiful little birds, in the Moorhen family, but a bit smaller, and a lot more secretive. Full of character, much like yesterday's Sanderling.
The day in between was nice, taking in an interesting exhibition about, Charles II; lunch at the always excellent White Horse; and a spin by a brilliant photo exhibition at the City Arts Centre (for the second, time, but George hadn't been yet).

But it's those quiet moments; the intake of breath as the thing you've been hoping and waiting for appears; that time when nothing exists but you and the wildlife; when you forget the cold in your fingers...