ML250795381

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Following up on a report by Willy Hutcheson from midday today, we visited a marsh in a bend along the Pleasant River south of Columbia Falls. We had motored up river from Addison in Willy's skiff. Upon arriving at the north side of the marsh and all settled, we listened and then played Yellow Rail. We could hear faintly but clearly to our south-southeast a staccato series of clicking notes that sounded like Yellow Rail, which I have heard in Alberta and Manitoba. The sound was a dry 'tic, tic, tic-tic-tic' or 'tic, tic, tic tic-tic' or some variation repeated. The sound was perhaps 200 meters away. We walked toward the area. After about an three-quarters of an hour, we heard the calls again clearly and closer. Waiting together at one spot, we played some calls of Yellow Rail but did not hear a response. Deciding to leave because of an approaching thunderstorm and darkness (boating limitation), we walked westward toward the last area we heard the rail. Doug flushed the bird about 2 meters from his position and called out. We all saw the bird in flight as it rose up and flew away, staying about 1-2 meters above the vegetation. The Yellow Rail was flushed from about this location: 44.641804, -67.716885 In flight, I looked with binoculars and noted a small, chubby, and rounded bird about the size of a softball, with short neck and not much extending in front of the body. The legs were not apparent and may have been tucked under posterior portion of the bird. It looked oblately rounded front to back. It was blackish-brown dorsally and dull tawny buff ventrally. The upper parts were variegated in some way that I did not perceive precisely, although pale whitish-buff longitudinal lines was a firm impression that I saw. The grayish-brown wings clearly showed a white bar across the secondaries, this patch most prominent basally. The wing beats were rapid, and the bird tipped to the right as it descended rapidly into an area of bulrush and shorter marsh vegetation. About mid-flight I reached for my camera but quickly opted to go back to binoculars to watch the bird.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D3500

ISO

100

Focal length

300 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/15 sec

Dimensions

1440 pixels x 1440 pixels

Original file size

1.21 MB