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On Monday 21 June, Julie Palmer and I visited the French
Basin Trail in Annapolis Royal, in hopes of identifying a mystery
bird first reported by Lois Jenkins. We heard a single call in the
place which she described, but did not see the bird which was making
it. We tried using a sequence of rail recordings to lure it out, but
that was unsuccessful, perhaps because the sound couldn't be
projected very loudly. (Although Julie was the first to spot a Sora,
which was great to see!) We listened to my birdsong recordings
afterwards, and agreed that what we heard most closely matched a
Virginia Rail, although we wished that we could have heard it again.
On Wednesday 23 June, after having read Sydney Penner's
report of a VIRA family in the marsh, I revisited the trail. It was
late afternoon and raining, so I donned my rubber boots and umbrella
and went "birding in the rain". What a wonderful place the marsh
is! There was a Snipe winnowing, and Pied-billed Grebes and Sora
calling, and a Swamp Sparrow was singing, and a number of swallows
and 2 Chimney Swifts were swooping low over the water. I looked
carefully for the place which Sydney Penner described, and rechecked
the first location as well. While moving between the two, I heard an
odd call which made me turn around, and a Virginia Rail flew up from
the south side of the trail as Mr. Penner described, and flew
northeast towards the big marsh! Wow, I've never had a natural
sighting of a VIRA in Nova Scotia before, that is to say, without
someone using playback. I looked hard among the cattails in the
place from which the bird flew, but was unable to see any other rails.
Thanks to Lois Jenkins for her original report, and to
Sydney Penner for his full description.
Patricia L. Chalmers
Halifax
>From:
><mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca
>[<mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca]
>On Behalf Of L Jenkins
>Sent: June-06-10 4:34 PM
>To: NatureNS
>Subject: [NatureNS] Need birdsong ID
>
>I am a regular walker around the French Basin Trail at the Annapolis
>Royal Marsh. Recently I've been hearing, in the same spot among the
>reeds, a song that sounds like a rusty hinge moving. Low pitched,
>fairly loud. I haven't sighted anything, but know there's something
>there . . . Any suggestions??
>
>Lois Jenkins
>Annapolis Royal
<snip>
"Here's where I heard the sounds: when you walk onto the old railbed
from the parking lot, continue on the railbed past the French Basin
Trail entrance, until you come to a power transformer enclosed with
chain link fencing, on your left. The sounds came from the
reeds/cattails behind or to either side of the enclosure.
> To: NS-RBA@yahoogroups.com
> From: Sydney F Penner <sfp26@cornell.edu>
> Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:05:01 -0300
> Subject: [NS-RBA] more on the Virginia Rails
>
> Several people have expressed interest in the Virginia Rails that I
> reported yesterday, so let me say a bit more about them. I saw them at
> the Annapolis Royal Marsh---NOT at Belleisle. If you walk in from the
> parking lot and keep going straight instead of turning left to go around
> the main pool, the rails were in the pool/swampy area that's mostly
> filled with cattails and so on to the right of the path. In other words,
> it's on the south side of the Marsh and on the opposite side of the path
> from the main pool.
>
> I was expecting to see Sora and I thought the chicks were probably Sora
> chicks when I first saw them. I haven't seen Sora chicks before (I have
> seen Virginia Rail chicks before in New York) but remembered reading
> that they have black down all over and these definitely were black. Of
> course, that's also true of Virginia Rail chicks, but I figured Soras
> were more likely. But after watching a couple of the chicks for a while,
> I checked a field guide and realized that Sora chicks are supposed to
> have light legs rather than the dark legs that Virginia Rail chicks
> have. The ones I was looking at definitely had uniformly dark legs. That
> was when I started thinking that I was looking at Virginia Rails instead
> of Sora.
>
> The chicks were happy enough to run across the small open areas in that
> area and so I got good looks at them. The adults were more elusive, but
> I could hear them calling and, giving the presence of the chicks, I
> figured that they were bound to show themselves eventually. It took
> quite a while, but I did finally get decent looks at two adult Virginia
> Rails.
>
> I should note that I'm not sure that the chicks and adults belonged
> together. I saw all of them running around in an area of about five by
> eight metres, but I don't know enough about how densely rails will
> populate an area to know how likely these all were to belong to one family.
>
> Best wishes,
> Sydney Penner
>
> sfp26@cornell.edu
> Berwick, N.S.
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<x-tab> </x-tab>On Monday
21 June, Julie Palmer and I visited the French Basin Trail in Annapolis
Royal, in hopes of identifying a mystery bird first reported by Lois
Jenkins. We heard a single call in the place which she described,
but did not see the bird which was making it. We tried using a sequence
of rail recordings to lure it out, but that was unsuccessful, perhaps
because the sound couldn't be projected very loudly. (Although
Julie was the first to spot a Sora, which was great to see!) We
listened to my birdsong recordings afterwards, and agreed that what we
heard most closely matched a Virginia Rail, although we wished that we
could have heard it again.<br><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>On
Wednesday 23 June, after having read Sydney Penner's report of a VIRA
family in the marsh, I revisited the trail. It was late afternoon
and raining, so I donned my rubber boots and umbrella and went
"birding in the rain". What a wonderful place the marsh
is! There was a Snipe winnowing, and Pied-billed Grebes and
Sora calling, and a Swamp Sparrow was singing, and a number of swallows
and 2 Chimney Swifts were swooping low over the water. I looked
carefully for the place which Sydney Penner described, and rechecked the
first location as well. While moving between the two, I heard an
odd call which made me turn around, and a Virginia Rail flew up fro