Hi Everyone,

For a few years now Mike Walsh and I, together with Chris Snow of the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, have been conducting marsh bird surveys along Big Monie Creek in Somerset County.  The marsh is beautiful, with high densities of Least Bitterns, Clapper Rails, Marsh Wrens, and Seaside Sparrows; and it's always fun to have an excuse to get out in the field before the Chuck-will's-widows have gone to bed for the morning.

Today (10 May 2012), during our first survey this year, I was startled to hear a Yellow Rail at our third sample point.  While we were listening, the three of us in the boat (Chris, Jennifer Thompson, and I)--Mike wasn't there today; bummer!--noticed a quiet ticking sound in the marsh.  We all noticed the sound at about the same time--it was nothing like the loud tics of the Clapper Rails we were hearing, nor anything like the loud kid-diks of Virginia Rails.  During the bird's first round of ticking, I heard it well enough to have the surprising thought that it was a Yellow Rail.  During its next round we distinctly heard the typical Yellow Rail pattern to the vocalization: two tics alternating with three.

The location is 863 m as the rail flies downstream from the boat ramp on Drawbridge Rd.  With the Big Monie's bends and curves, it is probably about a mile from the boat ramp as the kayak paddles.  Mike will probably paddle down that way first thing (about 5 am) tomorrow morning to see if the bird is still there.

If anyone would like more details about the location, please let me know.  Mike or I will be sure to post about the outcome of his search.

Have fun,

Ron Gutberlet
Salisbury, MD

############################

To unsubscribe from the MDOSPREY list:
write to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
or click the following link:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=MDOSPREY&A=1