Saw a Sora: Montezuma NWR Day 1 Part 2

Before heading slightly to the Northern end of Montezuma in search of Sandhill Cranes, I once again stopped to bird Knox-Marsellus Marsh.  From East Rd, I was able to distinguish the Marbled Godwit feeding on one of the exposed mudflats created from the draining of the pond.  The lighting was terrible and it was actually easier to see the bird's reflection off of the water than to see the bird itself.  I continued slightly further down the East Rd, to where there was an even larger opening and some birders had already gathered.  I inquired of them if they had any crane sightings and they mentioned that they just heard one from where they were standing a few minutes earlier.  I intently listened for a few minutes for the cranes' grunting yodel but couldn't hear anything so I returned to shorebird scanning.  After about 20 minutes of scanning, just as my mom asked "has anyone heard the crane recently?" I heard a deep grunting call and my mom was answered with "I just did" by several birders.  I had my lifer Sandhill Crane, #453, but I still wanted to see them.  After a short while of silence, again we heard the yodel and I looked up to see 2 Sandhill Cranes flying across the pond and landing on the mudflats. 



Since I had now seen the Sandhills, I continued to scan through the shorebirds in search of the Wilson's Phalarope without any luck.  However I managed to watch a White-rumped Sandpiper in flight giving nice views of its white rump.  After a few hours of not turning anything up from East Rd, and not needing to go further north in search of the cranes, I headed back to Towpath Rd to bird from a different perspective on the marsh.  After picking out two Black-bellied Plovers and six Short-billed Dowitchers, I decided to continue slightly further down the road closer to where some of the exposed mudflats which were not visible from any other position.  One other birder followed and I managed to find a juvenile Common Gallinule which was feeding about eight feet in front of a narrow strip of cattails.  I continued to scan for movement along the perimeter of the cattails and saw a fluffy black Common Gallinule chick which was much much younger than the first bird I saw.  Thankfully this little guy had a red bill which allowed for its identification.  While the other birder was trying to get the gallinules, he called out "that's not a gallinule that's a Sora!"  I quickly got on his bird and confirmed the Sora was not what I had been previously looking at.  Little did I know this adult Sora would provide great views for over and hour and a half.  This is the first time I saw a Sora after having hearing one on a family vacation to the Bahamas in the winter.      

After viewing the Sora for around half and hour, the birder I was with decided to leave.  To leave he had to continue slightly further in order to turn around on the narrow road.  I detail this because in the time it took for this birder to do this I gave another glance through my scope at the Sora and standing just beside the Sora was a Virginia Rail!  As he finished turning around, I called him back to now see the rail.  Two rail species in one day is not bad, but even though the sun was about to set, my day was not yet over.  I watched a large family of thirteen Common Gallinules cross the open pond to the adjacent shore.  I just read that Gallinules interestingly usually lay 8 eggs early in the season and another 5-8 later on, as per the ever so reliable but definitely useful Wikipedia.  This accounts for the tremendous variation in the ages of the juvenile gallinules below. 























I heard a yodeling call and moved slightly to my right to see over the high brush to my right and standing right in front of me were these Sandhill Cranes which had flown in much closer.

Stay tuned for Montezuma NWR Day 2...