The Rare Virginia Rail
by Riverwalk Birding Club
posted May 8, 2008
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Richard Schier is good at all this and he gets these incredible bird shots and packages it for others to enjoy. We hope you enjoy this rare bird.
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I know that many of you who have much experience in birding know how truly difficult it is to get any kind of pictures of Rails ....
Rails typically inhabit the deepest thickest tallest reeds in marshy areas.
They are built very thin so that they can easily slip between the reeds.
They seem to avoid open areas and sunlight like the plague.
However ....
Rails are loud as all get-out !
You can hear them clicking away from deep inside the marshy reeds, sometimes only feet away from where you are standing, but you will never see them.
Frustrating critters ....
But spectacularly beautiful birds .... if you can ever see them......
Last fall, I and Charles Dean had a bit of success with a rail that left the reeds for a few seconds, but remained in the deep shadows.
And in the prior spring, there was a week or so where Rails were running back and forth across a sort-of-canal at the Marsh as we attempted to snap pictures of these thin little blurs of birds.
For, another characteristic is this - if a Rail does find itself out in the sunlight, it quickly sprints across the clearing back into the deep reeds.
Good luck on photographing it !
And so it was, last Friday morning, I ventured back out to Standifer Gap Marsh, spent a fair amount of time out there, and, having decided to call it a day, I began loading my camera and tripod back into my car.
Suddenly I heard a LOUD Rail-click, so loud that it sounded like it was right next to me !
It was a Virginia Rail, over in the reeds near and to the right of the gate.
I quickly hauled my tripod and camera back out of the car, then walked over to the area from which I was hearing the Rail.
As the Rail moved back and forth down in the weeds, I caught passing glances of it, but it was always deep in the shade, deep in the reeds, and always moving rapidly.
Eventually, I decided to go into EXTREME WARBLER mode. I dismounted my S3 IS from my tripod, held it in my hand, and leaned precariously forwards from the side of the road, pointing the camera downwards, in the direction of the hidden Clicking Rail ..... taking "potshots" as best I could.
I am not going to tell you exactly how many "potshots" I took, but in two of them, I actually caught a part of the Virginia Rail in a small patch of dappled sunlight down in the reeds.
I was no more than 10 feet from the rail when I took these, and, while these are only "partials", you can see the photographic potential for these birds if ever the opportunity for a clear shot occurs.
The Virginia Rail eventually wandered further away from the reeds near the gravel road, and I counted myself lucky indeed to have gotten the above two super close-ups.
However, a few minutes later, from the edge of a small clearing in the reeds, an avian head suddenly peeked out !!
The Rail cautiously surveyed the area, moving its head in all directions, then ....
There it was ! Out in the Sunlight !
I was holding my breath and snapping pictures at the same time, hoping not to spook it !
In the picture below, it turned sideways for an instant, to show its plumage from head to tail ...
You can tell that the Rail was getting ready to "high-tail" it !
It took a long time to finally get one of these birds out into the sunlight, but it was well worth it !
HAVE A GREAT DAY !!!
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