Water Rail Rallus aquaticus
Scarce resident fairly common passage migrant and winter visitor (ex-RBBP from 2018 season onwards).
Water Rails: left, River Ancholme December 1st 2011 ( Russell Hayes); right, Grainthorpe March 18th 2019 (Mark Johnson).
Much under-recorded, Water Rails tend to be confined as breeding birds in Lincolnshire to reed swamp vegetation like Phragmites reedbeds. That makes them difficult to see and most observers record them from their distinctive calls. The relative paucity of reed beds in the county limits their distribution. RBBP records show an average of 42 pairs per year bred during the period 2013-2017. It ceased to be considered by RBBP as a rare breeding species from 2018 onwards. By that time a better understanding suggested the British population was above the 2,000 pairs threshold that merited detailed consideration. The Atlas suggested that in the late 1980s the population was around 10 to 20 breeding pairs. At that time a key site for the species in the county was the Humber Bank Clay Pits. They remain important but have recently been eclipsed by the Alkborough Flats Environment Agency managed retreat project at the confluence of the Trent and Humber which has substantially increased the amount of reed bed in Lincolnshire. In 2020 up to 80 territories were recorded here. Winter influxes are not unusual and at such times Water Rails can be found in all kinds of aquatic habitats across the county.
(Account as per new Birds of Lincolnshire (2021), included September 2022)