4 Rails and 3 Owls

Dave Eberly and I went out with  Andy Ednie on a night time excursion looking for Rails
and any other night birds that we could find. Here is Andy's description of that night.


Sorry for the late post but I had to get caught up on my sleep to become
coherent. The DOS ran its rail trip on Friday doing into Saturday morning.
The one thing that will kill night birding is wind and we had plenty. Wind
gusts were up to 20 MPH. We started at Pickering Beach with only one
Virginia Rail talking. Then we went to Port Mahon and had three Virginia
Rails. The old marsh here is absolute dead, no rails talking there at all. I
have not had a rail in that marsh since DNREC decided the marsh needed to be
ditched. There wasn't even a Swamp Sparrow talking here.

We went to Bombay Hook and got a break. The wind actually died down for two
hours. We had a King Rail and Clappers talking for an interesting
comparison. Virginia Rail and Clappers were calling at the Boardwalk Trail.
Common Moorhen, American Coot, and a Sora sang from the Daly Overlook at
Shearness Pool. We also had a Great Horned Owl perched in a snag hunting
over the marsh, Barn Owl in a tree alongside the roadway, and a red phase
Screech Owl poking his head out a wood duck box.

Barn Owl

We ended the night with a quick run into Greer's Pond and had 2 more Sora
and another Virginia Rail. No Black or Yellow Rails found this year. Thanks
to the management at Bombay Hook for allowing us night time access.

Good Birding,
Andy