With a grey and drizzly day ahead, I decided I would go to Woodsmill, just up the road, to see if i could get eyes on the Water Rail that had been seen from the hide. Usually Water Rails are pretty difficult to see, frequenting as they do, dense Reedbeds, I'm usually happy to tick em by the squealing but have had a few good sightings down the years! Happily the rain had kept the crowds away, just one car in the Carpark and there was no one in the hide as I took my seat and settled down for the long vigil before the inevitable failure!! 32 seconds later I was looking at a Water Rail ten feet away that proceeded to strut around outside the hide for 5 minutes until a Blackbird alarm call had it scuttling away back into the undergrowth from whence it came!!!!
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| The elusive Water rail buried in the undergrowth |
Who am I kidding!
As I awaited the return of the star bird I took some pics of the other birds present. Most numerous were the Blue Tits, Great Tits, Dunnocks and Robins, don't think I've ever seen so many Dunnocks in one place and the Robins were numerous with plenty of fighting and chasing each other around, I was joined in the hide by fleeing Robins on at least 4 occasions which was fun. There were a couple of Moorhens lurking about, 3 female Chaffinches, at least one Nuthatch and one Coal Tit, lots of activity with birds flitting in and out all the time!!! There was also a small rodent in the log pile that might be a Wood Mouse!
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| Robin |
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| Blue Tit |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Dunnock |
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| Blackbird |
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| Nuthatch, too quick to get a pic not on the feeder |
After about 20 minutes the Water Rail returned and more pics were obtained you will be thrilled to learn!
It skulked off again, so I decided to have a wander around the reserve, bumping into a couple of Birders looking for the hide, directions were given and I headed off, the rest of the reserve was pretty quiet, saw a Song Thrush and heard a Green Woodpecker. The weather was getting worse so popped back into the hide, for thirdseys joining the aforementioned birders, after a short wait the Water Rail reappeared, grabbed another couple of pics then headed back home!
I love a successful mission and a bird who hasn't read the script as to how they are supposed to behave! A cracking couple of hours! Well worth a trip if you are in the area!
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