It’s not that water rails are exactly shy. They’re just not as public as their cousins. While moorhens and coots freely sally out into the open under our gaze, the water rail is that bit more cautious. It never strays far from cover and mostly prefers to stay deep, unseen within a reedbed or marsh, where it teases us with grunts, groans and squeals. Then out it pops, looking like an extended chicken, with stretched beak and oversized feet, a high-stepping gait that suggests a skier on dry land, and a flirtatious, flicking tail. The rail has swapped its omnivorous diet of summer to a largely vegetarian winter. It turns its head this way and that, probing, prodding and pecking for seeds, berries, roots and shoots. All too easily it’s startled into dashing off and vanishing once again.
One to watch… water rail
If you’re very patient this winter, you could be rewarded with the sight of one of Britain’s more elusive wetland birds at your local WWT centre.
