Rare winter visitor.

Water Rails are resident breeding birds in Hertfordshire and are also winter visitors from northeast Europe.

The earliest record for Stevenage is of an immature bird that was found exhausted in Broad Oak Way in 1972 (Stevenage Zoological and Wildlife Preservation Society Quarterly Members Journal Autumn 1972).

There are eight records from Fairlands Valley Lakes: single birds seen between the Millennium and Environment Lakes on 18 and 19 December 2012, 7 and 8 April 2013, 9 March 2014 and, 17 March 2015; one seen in the Farmhouse Channel between 12 February and 23 March 2018; one at the Balancing Pond between 22 January and 31 March 2022 and, a second bird seen and heard at the Farmhouse Channel between 6 February and 1 April 2022; one at the Balancing Pond from 29 October 2022  to 1 March 2023; one at the balancing pond between 26 October and 25 March 2024; one seen in the Farmhouse Channel on 14 February 2024.