Water rail (Rallus aquaticus) - Yverdon-le-Bains, Switzerland скачать в хорошем качестве

Water rail (Rallus aquaticus) - Yverdon-le-Bains, Switzerland

You’re walking along the reed-fringed margins near Yverdon when a sudden burst of movement breaks the stillness. A water rail (Rallus aquaticus) slips into view at the edge of a ditch, its slate-grey body and warm brown back briefly visible before it melts back into cover. It steps delicately through shallow water, laterally compressed body allowing it to thread between reed stems with ease. For a few seconds it probes the mud with its long bill, then freezes, listening, alert to every sound. Around Yverdon and the shores of Lac de Neuchâtel, water rails are secretive residents and winter visitors, strongly tied to dense wetland vegetation. They favour reedbeds, sedge margins, and flooded ditches where they feed on invertebrates, small amphibians, and aquatic insects. In winter, cold weather often forces them into more open areas, making sightings like this possible. Their presence is a key indicator of healthy wetland structure, relying on intact reedbeds that provide both food and concealment throughout the year.