WATER RAIL

The freeze of winter provides perhaps the best opportunity to see the secretive, reedbed dwelling Water Rail in the open. And it is well worth seeing these beautiful rails, even under these challenging conditions. They are (perhaps surprisingly) much smaller and slimmer than Moorhens, with streaked brown upperparts and bluish-grey underparts, with flanks zebra-striped in black and white. Best of all is the long, slightly down-curved red bill. Water Rails are famed for their pigletsquealing screeches from within a reedbed. But they also have a few other calls up their sleeves, including an almost Coot-like, repeated ‘kik kik kik’. This is one bird which is heard much more than seen.