VA Bird,
Todd Day and I saw the King Rail which was found by Laura Catterton
yesterday at the farm pond along Pageland Road across from the Manassas
Battlefield around 5:20 this afternoon. We arrived about 5:05 and
searched the pond edge but didn't see the bird. We then played a tape
for several minutes but got no response. We walked down the Pageland
Farm driveway about 50 yards until we could see the other small pond
that is on the opposite side of the driveway. The habitat there is a
bit better so we played the tape there. Nothing. We were walking back
to our cars along Pageland Road when Todd gave the first pond one more
search and he spotted the bird along the edge of the tall grass at the
end of the pond nearest the driveway (and very near where we played the
tape on the driveway). It foraged along the edge long enough for us
both to get our scopes and watch it for about 1 minute before it
disappeared behind the grass. It came back into view briefly a few
minutes later and then disappeared and we didn't see it again. It isn't
clear whether playing the tape on the driveway brought the bird out
since we couldn't see that pond from where we were. If you go looking
for this bird, note that there is a small gravel pull off for the
battlefield on the other side of Pageland Road where it is easy to park.
Thanks Laura for yet again finding a great bird!
Sue
--
Susan Heath
Fairfax County
Centreville, VA
sheath@xxxxxxxxx
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
