Hi All
Could I ask for your skills to identify this bird please?
We're in Herefordshire near the mid Wales border. I've never had a wader in my garden before so I haven't a clue what this is. I've been thru some books but nothing is jumping out.
There's a video here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/P7KSmSDyw13QWG1H7 and I took some stills from it below.
(I was actually trying to work out what is burrowing just under the hedge!!)
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
THANKS Steve
HI Steve. That is a Water Rail. They are usually found in reedbeds and are very elusive - except it seems in your garden!
FAb, thank you. That was the only bird I thought looked similar, but then read that they are very shy and (as you say) normally found near reed beds! Very odd to see it in the garden. Thanks for replying. Really made my day
Very well spotted Steve, how fabulous to see this normally shy young Water Rail bird in your garden, hope it returns for you. if you have bird feeders they will forage beneath feeders for fallen seeds, they like mealworms; obviously loves your rural garden with that lush grass and foliage to forage and meander through and guessing you are not far from water areas.
Just adding a LINK to a water rail we used to see up at RSPB Leighton Moss who turned out to be unusually confiding and enabled visitors to get a really close encounter with this Rail. He ended up with a nickname "Sir Walter Rail-ey" He/she would come striding out of the ditch for live mealworms !!
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Regards, Hazel
WOW that's amazing footage. I don't think I'll be lucky enough to actually see this bird, unless it becomes as reliable as your bird.
And you are totally correct about the water in the garden. The wall that my bird hops over at the end of the video leads straight to a stream that's full of small invertebrates. And the lawn is full of earthworms! I only put that camera in place last night, so hopefully some more surprises to come.
Thanks for replying.
As said by the others it's a water rail - usual very shy and makes a weird squealing noise that gives them away. I have been lucky enough to have one in my garden in the past and it enjoyed mealworms. It was during a particularly wet spell and I think it's usual haunt had become too waterlogged/deep to successfully feed so it had followed the stream up into the garden
Cin J
A fabulous bird to have in the garden.