With only light rain yesterday, we ventured over to Crystal Springs
Rhododendron Garden, which is DISTINCT FROM REED LAKE, to see if we might see
or hear the Virginia Rail(s). Though we saw many of the usual suspects - Wood
Ducks, Lesser Scaups, American Widgeons, Double-crested Cormorants, and
stunning flowers, we did NOT see or hear any rails, though we actually stopped
near appropriate habitat and played a couple different calls from my iPhone.
We did find the new beaver dam and were lucky enough to see one of the beavers,
too.
Good Birding-
Richard Kuehn / Dean Schuler
Remember: Life is NOT a dress-rehearsal!
tsrbirdman@xxxxxxxxx
On Mar 11, 2016, at 7:38 PM, Wayne Hoffman <whoffman@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi -
Rails migrate at night but fly lower than most nocturnal migrants. As a
result they are very common victims at TV towers and other obstructions,
and tend to get stuck in built environments, particularly in rainy weather.
In 1985 and 1986 I assisted with gathering tower mortality at a 1200' tower
outside Topeka KS. The tower had a series of guywires, and rails tended to
be found under the wires, farther from the tower. The highest-flying
migrants would be clustered closer around the tower. After a rainy night in
Sept. 1986, two of us collected about 1100 birds, including over close to
200 rails. The majority were Virginia, but there were also a lot of Soras,
and incredibly, 32 Yellow Rails, including one that was still alive.
Wayne
-----Original Message-----
From: obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of John Thomas
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2016 10:50 AM
To: redpeelingbark@xxxxxxxxx
Cc: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [obol] Re: Downtown pdx virginia rail
Another lost rail in migration? They do seem to get themselves into prickly
situations. My wife, working at a local elementary school at the time, was
known to like birds so somebody brought her a "strange bird in a bucket".
This was quite a few years ago. At the time we didn't know a rail from a
cuckoo and e-mailed photos to several Oregon big-time birders who ID'd the
"bird in a bucket" for us. Lifer !!!
The bird landed on East Hill in Silverton either on or near Hwy 214-again
in the spring- and was totally lost. We put it in a small cage (inside and
safe), fed it mealworms and it recovered overnight without having to track
down a rehab place. We released it into a local Silverton area wetland.
When students in Salem brought me a bird in trouble, it was a Starling!
Just my luck... There was a rehab lady in Salem who actually took it in at
the time.
John Thomas
NE of Silverton
PS On local bird note, we saw our first Band-tailed Pigeon for 2016 this
morning.
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