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FINALLY!

Though the BRM may have wanted to keep reports of these two birds from we plebian birders, they did not manage to supress the information on this Black Rail observation, this time.

Beau Schaefer posted about hearing a kiki deer-ing Black Rail Tuesday, May 17, 2022, at 1145am, from IBSP. Rather immediately, it was heard by others who could get to the location. Then in the afternoon, it was reported that there were actually two Black Rails on site, doing competing songs.

I went up on Wednesday from 150pm to 330pm, but no luck. At 4pm, others again heard at least one Black Rail in the same location, but I think they only heard the grunting call, though I believe they saw at least one of the rails too.

This morning one Black Rail was again heard between 945-1045am. As soon as I was done with my COS LaBagh bird walk, I decided to head up to Lake County. I arrived at 1145am, and I got to the location at 1150am. I found one birder already there, and walked in with another. They each left. I had decided I was staying until I heard these rails or died trying, LOL. I sat down and started listening. Carefully.

At 129pm, I heard the low grunting of one Black Rail, the same "call" that can be heard on "All About Birds" recording #3 as of today. Very unsatisfying, but it was clear and undeniable. I wanted to hear the song of the Black Rail. I also wanted to get a recording to prove the encounter.

Just before 2pm, a Black Rail began kiki deer-ing and grunting from the north side of the levee/path. After about 2 minutes of it singing and calling about 3 feet from the levee in or near some shrubs at a wet ditch edge, another Black Rail began calling directly behind me, across the levee from the first bird in the wet ditch there.

I noted birder AS walking up, and frantically waved him over, but both rails stopped singing. But in about 2 minutes, after some brief hellos, the bird south of the levee began singing again, loudly and quite clearly. We were both quite glad of the encounter, and this is a recording of that second singing episode.

Both AS and I looked hard to see the bird, but not only did we not see it, I didn't even see any grass move, even though the bird was likely no more than 3 feet away from me, and was moving to the East, slowly, but unmistakeable based on the location of where the song was coming from.

I will admit, the two hour wait was tough, but what a wonderful encounter. No playback was used, and thus far it seems that everyone has been pretty great about just listening and dealing with their fate. Are these two males? Are there females here too? We can only hope.

Nice testament to Brad Semel and his team for the resotration work that has been done here to rehabilitate this habitat. In addition to these rails, I had at least 5 Virginia Rails, one Sora and for sure one Least Bittern, and maybe two.

This is Lake County species #273 for me, and Illinois bird #386. Very pleased to finally add this to my Illinois bird list. Now to get it in Cook.

Walton County, Georgia. ©williamwisephoto.com

• Mostly sunny, high 49°
• Sunrise 7:29 AM, sunset 6:05 PM
• Day length: 10 hours, 35 minutes
• Moon: waning gibbous, 95% illumination
• Journal: http://williamwisephoto.com/photographyblog/american-coot-with-dead-fish
  

~ William Wise Photo Nature Notes is a wildlife, birding and nature photography blog documenting the beauty, design and wonder of God’s creation. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message

Audubon Information: A close relative of the Clapper Rail of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, and was considered part of the same species until recently. It has a patchy distribution in salt marshes of the Pacific Coast, as well as inland around the salty waters of the Salton Sea. Unlike the Clapper Rail, it also lives in freshwater marshes, along the lower Colorado River and its tributaries.

Feeding Behavior

Forages by walking in shallow water or on mud, especially on falling tide or at low tide, picking up items from the ground or vegetation, sometimes probing in mud or water.

Eggs

Usually 7-11, sometimes 5-12 or more. Pale yellow to olive-buff, blotched with brown and gray. Incubation is by both sexes, 23-29 days.

Young

Downy young may leave nest soon after hatching. Both parents probably feed young. Parents may brood young in a separate nest from the one in which the eggs hatched. Young can fly in about 9-10 weeks.
Diet

Includes crustaceans, insects, fish. Diet varies with locality, and includes a wide variety of small prey. Crustaceans often favored, especially crabs, also crayfish and others. Also eats many aquatic insects, small fish, mollusks, worms, frogs. Eats seeds at times.

Nesting

Courtship displays are not well known. Male may feed female. Nest site is in clump of grass or other vegetation in marsh, near the upper reaches of high tide, or on bank near water. Nest (built mostly by male) is well-built cup of grasses and sedges, lined with finer material, often with vegetation woven into a canopy over nest. Often a ramp of plant material leads from ground up to nest.

King/Clapper Rail
2 July 1993
Balmorhea Lake,
Reeves Co., Texas
These images scanned from 35mm slides

I am 90%+ convinced these are King Rails and not Clapper. In Texas, at least, Clapper is very much a coastal salt water species, but there are exceptions. King and Clapper are both very rare inland in Texas, but King far more common with dozens of inland records while Clapper only has one such record as far as I am aware. The story behind these birds is that several people heard King/Clapper Rails calling in the marsh at Balmorhea Lake in west Texas in the early summer, 1993. I went there with a few others on July 2, 1993, and we were able to coax several of these birds into the open for photos with King rail tape recordings (the birds responded to both King and Clapper recordings, which are very similar). I was not able to get tape recordings of these birds on this occasion, however. What we can see in the images is a rail, very rich in color on the sides, underparts and lower flanks with strong black and white barring, unlike the more muted colors typical of Clapper. The face of the birds is not as bright as on many (most) Kings. Images 1 and 2 show the bird moving through marsh grass while image 3 shows the bird vocalizing. Although I'm not sure how to positively say these are Kings or not, the Texas Ornithological Society "Handbook of Texas Birds" considers these Kings (page 87) as do most other publications, now 20+ years removed from the events. I'll post this record just for the historical value in case some of you are interested.

In the summer 1993 issue of the Texas Region in American Birds magazine, @gcwarbler and I wrote the following about this record.
"A surprising record was of five calling King/Clapper Rails at a fresh-water marsh at L. Balmorhea July 2 (KB, MR, GL et al.). One of the birds was photographed but we are still not certain of the sp. involved. Some races of Clapper Rails from the interior of Mexico appear visibly brighter than their salt-water relatives approaching the brightness of Kings. Either sp. would represent a significant record for the Trans-Pecos Region."

and the following spring we wrote:

Spring 1994
"A calling King Rail at L. Balmorhea May 7 (GL, CJ) provided continuing evidence of a possible nesting population in that Trans-Pecos location."

Since these records there have been a few other reports there as I recall, but I don't know how many were photographed or if any were photographed. I will post these here at genus level, but it would take some convincing to get me to believe they are not Kings. I would welcome any thoughts, but if you choose to ID this bird as one species or the other I'd really be interested in your reasons. These images have been looked at and commented on by many very knowledgeable folks over the years and the consensus is King, with the caveat...."probably"