Giving into Temptation

This weekend we finally broke and gave into temptation that is to say we finally headed for the Cotswolds and the Blue Rock Thrush that had taken a liking to Stow in the Wold. At least the bird has class and not tuned up in some council estate.
We don't usually travel this far to see a bird but as Slimbridge was not too far away and we have not been for quite a while we decided to head down South for the day.

The Blue Rock Thrush soon popped into sight after we arrived meaning we only had to wait around 5 minutes after grabbing a few shots and as it had flown off it was off to Slimbridge.

All of the parks for Gem unfortunately were either closed or too muddy so it was just quick play and a look at the Flamingos tucked away before it was back to birding.
From the Kingfisher hide we saw White Fronted Geese which was a nice year tick but nothing else really that was new. From the Zeiss hide we saw a very showy Water Rail allowing me to grab a few shots.

Around the main body of the collection we saw a pair of Coots having areal scrap.

Soon after we bumped into some local birders (local to use that is) strange where you might bumped into some fellow Staffs birders.

After a nice lunch in the cafe we did a few more hides adding to our collection Bewick Swan, Little Stint and Crane.