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Subject:

Black Rail at Richardson Marsh (S of Irish Grove)

From:

Bill Ellis

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Fri, 30 Dec 2005 22:34:25 -0500

Don Jewell and I helped Paul Bystrak and Mary Lee with the Irish
Grove area of the Crisfield Christmas Bird Count on Wed. 28 Dec.
Paul played a variety of rail recordings in the late afternoon,
circa 5 PM.  Although he did not hear a reply to the Black Rail
(BLRA) recording he played many times from the north edge of
Richardson Marsh, I heard a "kee-kee-kerrr" reply quite clearly,
repeated about 5 times in quick succession, from a BLRA.  Don and
I were on Rumbly Point Road at the time, about 1/2 mile southeast
of Paul.  We could not hear Paul's recordings, but we heard
replies from a variety of other rails, too.

I was not mistaking Paul's recording for a real BLRA because:
1.  Paul told me he played the BLRA recording many different
times, but I heard a reply series only once.
2.  Paul was playing "kee-kee-kerrr, kee-kee-keerrr,
kee-kee-kee-kerrr", with the extra syllable song variant in the
third part, which I did not hear - I heard only the usual song.
3.  Paul said later that the same thing had happened in the
past - he was playing rail recordings, and Sam Droege heard
certain replies where he was out in the marsh, but Paul did not.
4.  Paul may not have heard the reply because of a mild auditory
temporary threshold shift (TTS) - he played his recording (I
heard later) quite loudly; or he may have overlapped the reply.

The BLRA was our best bird of the day - thanks Paul!!  The
Short-eared Owls Don spotted over the marsh were cool, too.

My suggestion to those who play recordings to detect birds - wear
noise reduction ear muffs and have your birding partner shift
them off your ears after you play a recording.  (It usually takes
both hands to operate an MP3 or WAV file player with speakers.)
Ear muffs give about a 25 - 30 decibel sound reduction, probably
enough to prevent any TTS.  I plan to try it myself.

Bill Ellis
Eldersburg, MD
billellis at ellislist
dot com