[va-bird] King Rail chick at Occoquan on June 5th

VA-Birders:

      Back on June 5th, at Occoquan Bay NWR, my wife and I saw a King Rail in 
the middle of "Easy Road."  I took two photos of the bird, and, saving my 
batteries, shut the camera off.   The bird then called and a little solid black 
chick came out of the grass, crossed the road, and entered the grass on the 
other side of the road with its parent.  Since my camera has a 4-second delay 
from off to on, I completely missed the shot of the chick.  Frustrating?  You 
bet!

     We didn't think much of the sighting, since there had been several King 
Rails spotted at Occoquan in the previous month--including one by Cliff Otto, 
plus John McGee had sent me an impressive King Rail photo that he got at 
Occoquan with his super camera (Canon 20D) and Image Stabilized lens.....so I 
thought seeing the chick was not unusual.

     But last night I checked Kurt Gaskill's home page 
(http://hometown.aol.com/kurtcapt87/home.htm) and his chart on Northern 
Virginia Breeding Bird data (http://hometown.aol.com/kurtcapt87/novabb.html).   
The chart has three stages of breeding confirmation --"Possible Breeding," 
"Probable Breeding," and "Breeding Confirmed."  For King Rails in Prince 
William County, the chart has "Probable Breeding--S" (singing parent).  So I 
guess seeing a King Rail chick in Prince William County is not so common after 
all.

Bill McGovern
Alexandria

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