Many years ago, when I was TA at OSU's Fish & Wildlife Department, I'd take
my ornithology class out to Finley NWR and place a tape player on the trail
on the backside of Cabell Marsh, looping Virginia Rail calls. On several
occasions, we watched single or even multiple rails run out into the open
and attack the tape player (I suppose these days we can't do that anymore,
since playback is a no-no in National Wildlife Refuges :)). MY students
were impressed, though.
Hendrik
On Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 1:34 PM Mark Nikas <elepaio@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Good tape recorder story Jeff. I had a similar one years ago. In the
1980's Black Rails were discovered as local breeders at a few sites in
southeastern Colorado. I went to the marsh at Bent's Old Fort National
Historic Site where they had been heard and played my continuous loop
tape. At the time I was a smoker and placed the recorder at my feet while
I lit a smoke. I then looked down to pick up the tape player and on top of
it was a tiny Black Rail pecking at the speaker. It's still the only one
I've seen.
Mark Nikas
On Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 1:08 PM Jeff Gilligan <jeffgilligan10@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I used to bird in the hills above Sauvie’s Island decades ago. The
Loggie Road and Cornelius Pass Road area was in my section of the Sauvie’s
Island CBC, which I started as a 16 year old in the mid-60s. I regularly
found Mountain Quail up there, which is of course is not far from Forest
Park and part of the same Tualatin Mountains (west hills) ridge. Have a
fun memory of trying to show an eastern birder a Mountain Quail there. We
stopped near an emergent clear cut and I turned on my endless loop recorder
with the species' calls and we wandered off maybe a hundred feet. After
getting no response, we went back to the recorder to try elsewhere. When I
reach to pick up the recorder there was a Mountain Quail on it. Or next to
it
Jeff Gilligan
On Jan 22, 2019, at 11:47 AM, Andy Frank <andydfrank@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
While walking in Forest Park in Portland this morning about 9AM I heard
about 4 "quarks" that I thought sounded like Mountain Quail. It was
somewhat distant and did not repeat itself so I am not confident enough to
include it on my checklist, but if someone happens to go and can confirm
it, I'd love to hear it. This was near the intersection of Wildwood Trail
and Birch Trail.
Andy Frank
