ML74585921

Age and sex

Immature Unknown sex - X

Media notes

View of the gorgeous patterning that encompassed the entire bird's upper parts

Observation details

****MEGA. Absolutely gobsmacking record. ALIVE, immature bird found by Ken and Sue Feustel this morning. Very few modern North American records. All but one NY record of Corn Crake has occurred within the first weeks of November (Bull, 1964), and so the window for this species was clearly wide open (not unexpected???). After receiving a call from Brent Bomkamp, I made the mad dash to the site where I met with Pat L. and Shai M., initially seeing the bird from the driver seat of their car. Views were fairly decent from the get-go, as seen from the northern shoulder of the Ocean Parkway and I was able to view the following description of this bird as it foraged deliberately in the open grassy areas of the shoulder of the road along the brushy edge of same: This bird was much larger than I anticipated it being. Having never purposefully looked up the size of a COCR, I always assumed it would be around the size of a Sora. However, this bird was marketably larger than a SORA! It walked around very cautiously and deliberately as if it was a tremendous mouse or something similar. The bird was overall very plump as typical of this family, appearing like a small, tailless chicken; seemingly bottom heavy with a smallish head and stout bill (similar to SORA), which was caucasian-flesh colored (contra juv. sora) with a dark eye. Not to draw too strange of a comparison, but this bird had a bizarre striking similarity to a female bobolink (minus the bold face/head pattern)... The upper parts of this bird were beautifully scalloped by cream-colored feathers with dark centers (contra juv SORA & YERA) or dark feathers with cream edges, through its entirety. The face and throat/breast seemed plain and tan colored from the distance I was observing from... Actually now that I think about it, this bird really looked just like a big, fat, female bobolink. From what I understand, an adult COCR would show more cold gray coloring on the face and throat which I did not see. The sides of the body appeared rufous colored- I guess this is due to the bird's rufous flight feathers as well as the coloration of the flanks. I was not able to make a good discernment between the two (nor could I see its legs) because the bottom portion of the bird was often obscured by grasses. Photos were taken, by either me or by Brent B with my camera out the side of my car, which are poor but will be uploaded to this report. During my observation period I let out many many curse words that, if my grandmother were alive to hear, she'd be quite displeased about.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 40D

ISO

1600

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/500 sec

Dimensions

2026 pixels x 979 pixels

Original file size

1.99 MB