Subject: Night of the YELLOW RAIL (1)
Date: Jun 8 07:22:58 2000
From: Pterodroma at aol.com - Pterodroma at aol.com


Upper Klamath NWR; Klamath Basin, Oregon, June 02-03, 2000 ---

The minimal parameters of my quest to (1) 'hear' YELLOW RAILS and (2)
'examine their habitat' was quite thoroughly fulfilled. To actually *see*
the elusive Yellow Rail indeed eluded me. No surprise there; I wasn't
expecting to, so no suicidal disappointment.

In response to my Klamath Basin Yellow Rail query a few weeks ago, Robert
Taylor forwarded me a then current posting on OBOL from Klamath Falls birder,
Frank Mayer, about the "infestation of Yellow Rails" at Jack Spring (Upper
Klamath NWR). Having left home months ago for California and mindlessly
without my copy of "A Birder's Guide to Oregon" (Joseph E. Evanich, Jr.
1990), the power word "infestation" in that 'one-liner' conjured up a power
image of something that couldn't be missed. So, I contacted Frank who
replied with explicit directions to Jack Spring and eagerly accepted my offer
for him to join me in an evening of railing and owling around the Upper
Klamath. We thoroughly dipped on the secondary owling and very nearly did
the same at Jack Spring with the Yellow Rail. The first pass through there
late in the afternoon and evening went zero, so we checked out several other
locations were birds had been heard or reported but our score remained zero.
Utter Yellow Rail silence. Finally, with Jack Spring being the last chance
stop at 10pm, sure enough, one Yellow Rail was 'ticking' away nonstop for the
next 45 minutes in the roadside marsh. From the road side of the 'spring',
we tried to lure it into view by imitating the pitch and cadence by tapping
pebbles together. This was all in vain I'm sure, especially after a second
day / night, railing further north at Klamath Marsh NWR, and I think the bird
was in fact much much further out than we thought at the time [see: "Night of
the YELLOW RAIL (2); the infestation"]. We finally pooped out and left that
bird to tick away the rest of the night minus it's human audience.

So, "infestation" it certainly was not at Jack Spring on the night of June
2nd. One bird, but a most satisfying one at that. The following morning and
well after sunup, I returned to Jack Spring to listen and take a close look
at the area and the habitat from which we 'think' we were hearing the Yellow
Rail. There were no Yellow Rails calling at all by daylight. The habitat
opposite the 'spring' (access via carefully crossing over on an old beaver
dam) consisted of very dense lush herbage of calf to knee high spike grass
and sedge in alternately dry to ankle deep water with a sprinkling of willow
and alder along the margins of the spring fed braided marsh. The odds of
seeing one by chance or even luring one into view seemed utterly remote and
indeed *is*. Actually, further out, the willow / alder component of the
marsh fades to pure spike grass / sedge, and it was more likely out in there
where our calling bird really was rather than in around the willow / alder
shrubs and thickets.

Jack Spring is located on the west side of Upper Klamath NWR along and on the
east side of Westside Road, ~25 miles NW of Klamath Falls, plus another 10
miles or so, past Rocky Point and north to milepost 3, and then, just 0.3 mi
north of that on a curve where you will see a good opening through the trees
which provides a fine overview of "Jack Spring" nearest the road and the
expansive marsh beyond. There is no sign stating "Jack Spring" which I think
is a locally known name, but there is an orange "Warning! Underground Cable"
sign on a green post right there which marks the spot. Confused? See the
map for Upper Klamath NWR to get an idea where "Westside Road" is at:
<A HREF="http://www.klamathnwr.org/images/maps/uklammap.jpg">http://www.klama
thnwr.org/images/maps/uklammap.jpg</A>

The 'home page' for the Klamath Basin NWR system can be viewed at:
<A HREF="http://www.klamathnwr.org/">Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges<
/A>
http://www.klamathnwr.org/

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Richard Rowlett (Pterodroma at aol.com)
47.56N, 122.13W
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA, USA

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what
nobody has thought" --Albert Szent-Gyorgi (1893-1986).
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