King Rail! - 07 Jun 2020

I woke up with the idea of doing some more field testing with the Sony cameras. Today, I'd be shooting the 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 on the Sony a9 while the Sony a7RIV gets relegated to digiscoping duty (with the Zeiss 35/2.8 on the Digidapter™). After a quick breakfast I was off to Pt. Mouillee SGA.

Arriving at 7 am I rode the Middle Causeway to the west end of the Lautenschlager Unit and took the dike north toward the Bloody Run Unit and North Causeway. Midway along the path I heard the distinct "Woonk-a-Choonk" of an American Bittern coming from the Walpatich Unit to my left.

Immediately I got off the bike and started setting up the scope with the idea of trying to find the American Bittern. Within moments of setting the scope in place I heard a very LOUD "TICK-TICK-TICK-TICK..." of a King Rail coming from directly behind me in the Lautenschlager Unit. As I turned to head over to look for it another King Rail responded with a quieter "Tick-tick-tick-tick..."

As I stood in the middle of the dike the first rail swam across the creek and started heading toward the second rail through the grass. I was able to grab the a9 and 200-600 and pre-focus on the trail in front of me with the hope of catching the rail as it ran into the open. Luck was on my side because the King Rail appeared out of the grass, stepped out onto the open dike in front of me, took two steps across, saw me, paused, turned its head to the second rail and stood there in complete indecision. I fired off frame after frame at 600mm of the bird before it scampered back to where it came from.

The two birds would continue to call to each other across the trail ahead of me while I stood there trying to find them both. The second King Rail appeared briefly in the grass to my left, but quickly disappeared when it saw me. At least the silent shutter on the camera didn't spook the birds as it fired away at them. I would spend a few more minutes listening to them before continuing on. Not to be outdone a Sora then started calling from the unit to the east.

I would then see a second American Bittern fly across the dike from the Lautenschlager Unit and land somewhere northwest in the Walpatich Unit. I could only manage some backlit flight shots as it flew far away. Good news is that the a9 and the 200-600 produced sharp images (unlike the 200-600 on the a7RIV). Check out the Double-crested Cormorant that flew by in better light.

As I reached the Bloody Run Unit a Tree Swallow was perched in the same snag that I photographed a Swamp Sparrow earlier in the week. I spent some time digiscoping the bird in low light from about 30 m away. Lighting was bad, but the bird was obliging.

Swamp Sparrows were singing nearby, as well as Marsh Wrens, but lighting was not good so I continued onto toward the dike between Nelson and Long Pond Units. Instead of riding the gravel trail I took the trail next to the Long Pond, which was grown over with vegetation but had a two-track that I could ride on. The bull thistle was up to 4' tall though, and I had to ride through it and bear the brunt of the sharp spines. The consolation, though, was this Eastern Kingbird that was perched a few feet away in bright sunlight.

I continued on along the North Causeway to the Banana Unit and Cell 5 where a half-dozen American White Pelicans were sharing the pond with two dozen Mute Swans. I stopped just long enough to grab a couple of pics of the fishing birds.

Cell 4 had a small raft of four Greater Scaup. I tried digiscoping them from a distance but moisture degraded image quality. Instead, I turned the scope on a Green Heron that was perched 30 m down the trail on a snag and calling out its loud "SKEOWP" song.

As I headed toward the Middle Causeway I flushed a Lesser Scaup from the rocks to my left in Cell 4. I decided to scope the duck raft in the south end of the Cell and find a Canvasback among several Redhead and a female Bufflehead. Nearby a flock of Bonaparte's Gulls (juveniles and non-breeding adults) were roosting on the antennae at the junction of the Middle Causeway, so I spent some time digiscoping them from just 10 m away.

The Vermet and Humphries Units were nonproductive so I continued on toward the parking lot at Mouillee Creek. A Swamp Sparrow was singing from a snag next to the trail so I stopped and got some nice digiscoped images as it popped up on a branch to sing.

Digiscoping with the a7RIV really came in handy here. The 61 Mpx sensor allowed me to crop enough to see the pointy grooves in the roof of the mouth of the bird as it sang. Most impressive!

I then drove down Roberts Road to listen for a Grasshopper Sparrow, but only found a Northern Flicker perched next to a European Starling cavity.

Pte. Mouillee SGA (permit required Sep 1-Dec 15), Monroe, Michigan, US
Jun 7, 2020 7:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Protocol: Traveling
9.0 mile(s)
18 species

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)  24
Canvasback (Aythya valisineria)  1
Redhead (Aythya americana)  5
Greater Scaup (Aythya marila)  4
Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis)  1
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola)  1     Female among several Redhead and a Canvasback in south end of Cell 4. Tiny diver with white patch on side of head.
King Rail (Rallus elegans)  2     Arriving at 7 am I rode the Middle Causeway to the west end of the Lautenschlager Unit and took the dike north toward the Bloody Run Unit and North Causeway. Midway along the path I heard the distinct "Woonk-a-Choonk" of an American Bittern coming from the Walpatich Unit to my left.

Immediately I got off the bike and started setting up the scope with the idea of trying to find the American Bittern. Within moments of setting the scope in place I heard a very LOUD "TICK-TICK-TICK-TICK..." of a King Rail coming from directly behind me in the Lautenschlager Unit. As I turned to head over to look for it another King Rail responded with a quieter "Tick-tick-tick-tick..."

As I stood in the middle of the dike the first rail swam across the creek and started heading toward the second rail through the grass. I was able to grab the a9 and 200-600 and pre-focus on the trail in front of me with the hope of catching the rail as it ran into the open. Luck was on my side because the King Rail appeared out of the grass, stepped out onto the open dike in front of me, took two steps across, saw me, paused, turned its head to the second rail and stood there in complete indecision. I fired off frame after frame at 600mm of the bird before it scampered back to where it came from.
Bonaparte's Gull (Chroicocephalus philadelphia)  6
Double-crested Cormorant (Nannopterum auritum)  1
American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)  6
American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus)  2
Green Heron (Butorides virescens)  1
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus)  1
Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus)  2
Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)  6
Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris)  2
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)  12
Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana)  4

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S160255340

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

I then drove over to the Antennae Farm off of Labor and Haggerman Rds (avoiding Haggerman) and hiked in on foot. There, I spent some time enjoying the Bobolinks as they flew back and forth from the antennae field to the oat/wheat field across the road. Curiously, I did not hear a single Savannah Sparrow this morning.

Dickcissels were also singing from the fence tops, but lighting was bad this time of the morning so I settled for backlit images. A nice morning.

Antenna Farm, Monroe, Michigan, US
Jun 7, 2020 9:30 AM - 9:50 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 mile(s)
2 species

Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus)  4
Dickcissel (Spiza americana)  2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S160255599

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)