yesterday was even better than I thought

Thursday was even a better day than yesterday's post ("hurricane ecology") might have indicated. After the post went out, Derek Rogers of the Nature Conservancy came over; he had been over at the Pine Neck preserve (directly opposite us) and wondered if he could see the Olive-sided Flycatcher from his side of the creek. I told him that it was a bit far but that, even if the chances of finding it at 5 pm in the afternoon were not great, he was welcome to stop by to look for it. Not only did we find the Olive-sided -- it was fly catching from the tip of the dead pine where Eileen Schwinn and I had originally found it on Wednesday -- but we also refound the Bald Eagle where I saw it on Wednesday: sitting on the Pine Neck Osprey nest eating something! Other birds seen on this short walk: Hairy Woodpecker, Brown Creeper, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Common Yellowthroat, Swamp Sparrow and the big Goldfinch flock with birds feeding on Pilewort and Iva fructescens (Marsh Elder) as well.

But that was not the biggest news of the day. Early yesterday morning, with heavy cloud cover extending the reign of night well into what should have been daylight, there were two calling rails in the marsh. These birds were quite well separated on opposite sides of the marsh and they were clearly calling to each other. The call was quite recognizable to me as something known as the Descending Cackle! Almost exactly 10 years ago, on October 15, 2002, I flushed Yellow Rails twice in two different parts of this marsh; in spite of the poor light I could see the white secondaries of these birds quite well. Both birds called quite distinctly as they dropped down into the marsh. I spent a lot of time searching for a recording of this call which I did not find. What I did discover however was the only true life history of this bird by one Phillip Scott Stahlheim. Stahlheim studied the biology of these elusive birds by a very simple method; he raised them in captivity! He was the one who discovered and named the Descending Cackle which he describes as a contact call; it is apparently used primarily during migration. While I can't be absolutely sure that there are no other rail species that use this call (I sloshed around the marsh, this time in vain, trying to flush something), I think it is quite likely that this shyest of birds was here once again. Right call and, give or take a couple of weeks, right time of year.

Eric Salzman