Water rail photography

In the hide for around 7hrs today hoping to do kingfisher but for one reason or another, they never showed up! However, despite the no-show by the kingfishers, the day wasn’t entirely wasted as three water rails put on a great floor show in front of the hide. These normally shy birds were fairly bold today and enabled me to get some great images to add to the few water rail images I have on file. The birds were feeding in a narrow channel that ran into an estuary and, although they mainly stayed in cover, every now and again they would sally forth into open water. I was lucky enough to get a series of images of a juvenile bird picking up stones and moving them so that it could feed on larvae beneath the rocks. So, all’s well that ends well and the kingfisher photography turned into water rail photography :¬)

If you’d like to photograph these elusive birds, contact Alan McFayden at Scottish Wildlife Photography Hides to book a session and if you quote ‘Wildscenes’ there’s a £10 discount off your rental charges.