Horicon Marsh: Rails
On the auto tour section of my Horicon Refuge visit, there was an opportunity to park and bird from a boardwalk through part of the extensive marshland. In the first 5 minutes of my walk, I heard the distinctive call of a rail, a very secretive species of bird that travels through the cattails.
After waiting a minute, the rail showed up at the edge of the open water allowing me to identify it as a Virginia Rail.
Due to their secretive nature, being able to see a rail is a fun treat for a birder. Most of the time they are known to be present by their sound only. This is where the boardwalk provided a great opportunity to observe this rail in close range.
The website All About Birds describes the rail’s behavior:
Rails have strong legs and long toes that help them walk and run on floating mats of vegetation. A head on look at a rail reveals a thin body that helps it sneak through dense wetland vegetation. Virginia Rails make abrupt movements, flicking their tails as they walk, and tend to seek cover most of the time. They dive underwater and swim across wetlands on occasion. When they do fly between or within wetlands their flight is weak and short. Sustained flight occurs only during migration.
Rails are closely related to both coots and cranes. There were plenty of sandhill cranes flying overhead during my visit at Horicon and one pair that was resting in the cattails just off the boardwalk.
What great sitings!