January 2026 Ramsbury Bird Notes by Paul Swan

Water rail

Looking down from Spring Hill we watched a heron chasing a great white egret along the valley until they landed on different sides of the Manor Lake. These are two of our largest birds, one very common indeed and the other a relative rarity. The egret was probably Edgar, our regular winter visitor that terrorized our village ponds a couple of years ago. The egret has a wingspan of 1.5 metres, while the heron can be up to nearly 2 metres. Clearly the heron was the aggressor in this contest over fishing rights.

At the Triangle we saw a water rail flying across the river. These are extremely secretive birds that spend most of their time hidden in the rushes. Their call is unmistakable as it sounds like a piglet squealing! We have also seen them this year at Seven Bridges, so we probably have a couple spending the winter with us. On a recent sunny day, we watched a group of seven red kites flying to and from a single tree near the Priory. They seemed to be taking it in turns to do a couple of circuits before returning to base. In the bright sunshine their plumage was stunning. One absentee from our winter visitors seems to be the large flock of golden plover. Fingers crossed that they will turn up in the new year. In the garden we had the pleasure of watching a thrush taking a bath in our small pond. There was a lot of splashing and then then a very careful preening of every single wing feather. The blackbirds are busy flicking over the fallen leaves in search of a morsel or two, while the sparrows are still hurtling about. Although getting mature now, they always seem like an excited group of teenagers! The robin, with its relatively large eyes, feeds earlier and later than most other birds, and our local bird looks particularly fit and in fine fettle. Let’s hope that our relatively mild weather continues into the New Year.