[texbirds] Yellow Rail on SPI
- From: MiriamEagl@xxxxxxx
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2013 19:31:21 -0400 (EDT)
Hi, all,
Apologies for not being able to get this out sooner, but I received a
report from a long-time San Diego birder friend who is here for spring
migration
of a Yellow Rail she had from the Convention Centre boardwalk on Saturday;
her description follows:
"The bird caught my eye because it looked daintier than a Sora and was an
over all tannish color. It had strong, distinct black stripe patterns on
it's back, with white and tan borders. The legs looked silver grey with
greenish yellow undertone. It stayed out feeding in a small puddle along
the boardwalk for about 1/2 hour to 45 min. It had an overall
tannish/buff/yellow color, and the strong pattern on the back was very
noticeable, even
with the naked eye. It also had some black at the base of bill, extending
out to eye also, dark scalloping on the tan background along his flank/lower
belly area. I was probably 10-15 feet away from the bird. I also looked at
it with my field glasses (10 x 42 Leicas). I did a little sketch, since I
don't carry a camera. It looked like a mature bird, one of it's wing
feathers, white, had been damaged and was hanging out at a weird angle. We
had
been through about three days of nearly constant strong north winds, and
so I assumed that it had managed to fly in on this wind and that was why
the wing had the feather hanging out, and why the bird didn't notice me, but
just kept on feeding frantically. I have seen lots of Sora's since coming
to the Island in the spring for 10 years or so, and this bird was
dramatically different. Very attractive bird. One of the few times that I
wished
I had been carrying a camera."
She was unable to find the bird later, but that doesn't mean it's not still
around. If anyone is interested in more details you can contact Alice
directly at debolta@xxxxxxx.
Mary Beth Stowe
McAllen, TX
_www.miriameaglemon.com_ (http://www.miriameaglemon.com/)
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