Grey Heron

I'd seen a couple of people had posted pictures of a kingfisher at the flash this week, so we headed over there this morning. Of course, by the time we had arrived, it had been and gone at Horrocks hide which is where it comes the closest, but we hung around for a while anyway. 
No sign, but a nice grey heron flew in and some juvenile lapwings were having a bath in one of the pools. 
We visited each of the hides in turn and eventually we came across one of the kingfishers. It was way too far away to even be seen by the naked eye, so the image in extras is massively cropped and at full zoom, but at least we saw one :) 

It was a thoroughly enjoyable morning with the hides being quite cool and the walk between them largely in the shade. When we got back to the car it was showing 38 degrees - the hottest we've seen it this year!