[texbirds] Re: Yellow Rail on SPI
- From: "John Arvin" <jarvin@xxxxxxxx>
- To: <MiriamEagl@xxxxxxx>, <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2013 16:18:49 -0500
Hi Mary Beth,
Perhaps. But so far there has never been a verified sighting of Yellow Rail
south of the coastal bend (more or less Aransas County). I know there have
been other anecdotal reports like this one at that site - and this sounds
like one of the better ones- but the fact remains there is almost zero
habitat suitable for Yellow Rail at that location. Perhaps, if one
invasions a migrant from farther south (where?) then the available habitat
is good enough. Who knows? Not to squash a potentially important record,
but .........
jca
John C. Arvin
Research Associate
Gulf Coast Bird Observatory
103 West Hwy 332
Lake Jackson, TX 77566
jarvin@xxxxxxxx
www.gcbo.org
Austin, Texas
----------------------------------------
From: MiriamEagl@xxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, April 01, 2013 6:32 PM
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [texbirds] Yellow Rail on SPI
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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