Water Rail

The weather was dreadful, high winds and horizontal rain for most of the day. From our base in Llanberis we drove to Anglesey in the hope of seeing red squirrels. They had nore sense than to be out and about as a very wet car woodland was all that we saw.
After pottering around in the rain we decided to call in at a nature reserve as at least it would be dry in the hide. In the time that it took to get my wellies out of the boot, the driving rain had soaked a number of things in there! I have never seen such sodden birds, the chaffinches were so wet that they looked almost black. After sitting there for a while we were rewarded with a sighting of a water rail that crept out of the reeds and went in front of the hide. It was a treat to see it as they are very secretive and difficult to spot as they are mostly hidden away in vegetation.
By late afternoon the rain had stopped so we had some misty views of the mountains on the way back.