Gallery - Rails and Crakes

Corncrake (Crex crex)

The Corncrake is gradually disappearing from much of Europe, arriving from Africa in spring, it skulks in dense grasslands, pastures and hayfields where it is more likely to be heard than seen. Feeds on insects and other small animals, nests on the ground.

Little Crake (Porzana parva)

This rare visitor came into Exminster marshes April 2008

Spotted Crake (Porzana porzana)

The Spotted Crake is a Amber listed bird-medium conservation concern.

Highly secretive summer visiter to temperate Europe, very patchily distributed in Europe with birds present one year and missing the next. Likes densley vegetated swamps, marshes and bogs with sedges and long coarse grasses. Also similar margins of lakes and large slow moving rivers.

Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus)

The Water Rail has been classified as a Amber list Species-medium conservation concern.

The secretive and slim bodied Water Rail walks or swims through the densely vegitated wet places where it lives.Feeds on plants and small creatures including fish. The nest is among thick vegitation on the ground.

Moorhen (Gallinula chioropus)

Seldom seen from water,Moorhens can be very secretive.They eat a wide range of vegtable and animal food.The nest is built in or over water.

Coot (Fulica atra)

Quarrelsome birds of open water, Coots flock in winter when migrants from N and E Europe join residents in the south and west.They dive to feed on vegitation and small animals, but also graze on land.They are active and noisy by night as well as by day. A bulky nest is built in shallow water among vegitation.

© Simon Thurgood 2024
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