There are two East Anglian birds that are usually hard to spot as they spend most of their time in reed beds where they breed, one is the Bittern and the other is the Water Rail.

The Rail Family consists of  the Coot and Moorhen and are the most commonly seen, the Corncrake and the Spotted Crake are the rarest and migrate to Africa in winter, whilst the Water Rail like the Coot and Moorhen is resident.

The Corncrake unlike the other four rails spends all it’s time on dry land hidden in tall vegetation, the Spotted crake and Water Rail like wet vegetation but the hardest to see will be the Spotted crake as it is the smallest of the rails and will spend nearly all of it’s time in thick cover, some birds do over winter but numbers are around 120 birds then and we may only see these in the south of East Anglia.

So the Water Rail although secretive is the most commonly widespread after the Coot and Moorhen, and are mostly found in East Anglia, you may see one in the open but it usually darts back into the reed stems, you are more likely to hear its pig like squeal in the reed beds.

Water Rail I was lucky to see at RSPB Titchwell