I've seen Corn Crakes on both my trips to Europe and that description is 
fitting. The reddish wing patch would be great to clinch the ID, but 
honestly is not always conspicuous. In my opinion what stood out most on the 
birds I saw were the barred flanks and heavily streaked and spotted 
upperparts.

The habitat which you're describing is also very appropriate. Especially 
since the first day you saw it the ground was fairly dry. The only native 
rail that would be expected in dry habitat is the Yellow Rail, which it 
seems you have ruled out.

I seem to have misplaced the original email that you sent, where has this 
bird been sighted? I don't think I'll be able it go check it out, but it is 
possible.

Mike H.
Baltimore City

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Steve Long" <>
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2012 3:57 PM
To: <>
Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Corn Crake

> Hi Ross,
>
> I am no expert on rails, and I am not working from my home.  So, my
> resources are limited here.  The only other person that I know of who saw
> the bird mentioned it to me this morning.  She knew it was unusual, but is
> not a birder, so all she could do is verify my estimate of its size.  She
> apparently saw it shortly after I did, so it must have walked back to the
> ditch once I left the area.  I looked for it again this morning, but did 
> not
> see it.  The only functioning camera here is a pocket digital.  Even if it 
> I
> see the bird again, unless it poses as close as I got to it yesterday, the
> pictures would probably be marginal.  However, I now know what filed marks 
> I
> really need to see (the "large rusty wing patch").
>
> With respect to ruling-out other rails:  It appeared to be too large to be 
> a
> Yellow Rail.  It did not look in shape or color like any of the
> illustrations of adult or immature Sora Rails in the bird books that are
> available to me here.  However, the illustrations of both the immature 
> Sora
> and the Crake are quite varied in the various bird books that my Mother 
> has
> here.    And, so are the length figures.
>
> The bird that I saw was mostly a buffy color, with a very distinct but not
> very high contrast pattern of darker centers and lighter borders on the 
> back
> feathers.  The belly feathers were much paler, and the vertical streaking
> near the back of the belly was very muted and more like buff-on-white than
> black-on-buff or black-on-white.  The beak was not a very noticeable color
> or shape - pale tan and not shaped like a chicken's.  There were no
> distincitve eye stripes, head color patches or wing bars.  Apparently, 
> what
> would have clinched the identification is the "large rusty wing patch" 
> that
> is shown conspicuously on all of the illustrations of a Crake and 
> mentioned
> in all of the write-ups.  However, I did not know that when I happened 
> upon
> the bird, so I was not concentrating on evaluating that particular 
> feature.
> There was some solid tan/brown between the back pattern and the belly, but 
> I
> don't remember it being such an obvious red-rust color as depicted in the
> book illustrations.
>
> If somebody could give me links to actual pictures of Crakes and immature
> Soras, I might gain some more confidence about the identification.  But, 
> at
> this point, the immature Sora is just a nagging doubt in my mind because I
> don't really know what they can look like within their range of 
> variability.
> Dendroica dose not seem to have photos of Soras nor Crakes.
>
> One additional factor is the location of the sighting,
> which is on the margin of a large agricultural field, a few hundred yards
> from the nearest salt marsh.  My understasnding is that Crakes prefer 
> fields
> and Soras prefer marshes.  But, maybe not all of each species has "read 
> that
> book."
>
> Steve
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ross Geredien" <>
> To: "Steve Long" <>
> Cc: <>
> Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2012 12:57 PM
> Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Corn Crake
>
>
>> Hi Steve and everyone,
>> Corn Crake would truly be a mega-rarity. Do you have any additional
>> documentation? Were all other rails ruled out? Has anyone else tried to
>> verify this?
>>
>> Ross Geredien
>> Edgewater
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>
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