I have made several trips in the past few years for the specific purpose of seeing Yellow Rails.\u00a0 This spring Barbara and I went to the Anahuac Grassland Preserve east of Houston, Texas to participate in one of the annual \u201cRail Hunts\u201d sponsored by Friends of Anahuac.\u00a0 I reported on that trip earlier on this blog.\u00a0 Suffice it to say that effort was extremely difficult and, in the end, fruitless.\u00a0\u00a0 Yellow Rail has been the only ABA Code 1 or Code 2 species that (1) I have never seen, and (2) can be seen regularly, though rarely, in Iowa.\u00a0 So, if I could find one in Iowa, I would have a double delight-both a North American and an Iowa Life Bird.<\/p>\n
A few years ago Carl Kurtz reported on the Iowa Bird Line that while harvesting prairie seed on his farm near St. Anthony, Iowa, he has seen Yellow Rails flush from the prairie grass in front of his moving combine.\u00a0 I met Carl about 10 years ago when I went on the Board of Trustees of the Nature Conservancy (Iowa Chapter).\u00a0 Carl had been a member for some time before I joined the Board.\u00a0 About a month ago I contacted Carl and asked if it would be OK with him if I came up and rode the combine with him when he harvests this year, to try to add Yellow Rail to my Life List.\u00a0 Last Saturday (October 16) he called me and told me that he had seen a Yellow Rail that day while harvesting, and that if I wished to come up to his farm on Sunday, if it wasn\u2019t raining, he would be continuing the harvest on the field where the Yellow Rail showed up on Saturday.\u00a0 I accepted readily.\u00a0 Staining the deck would have to wait.<\/p>\n
It did not rain on Sunday, and, in fact, it was a beautiful, sunny autumn day.\u00a0\u00a0 I arrived at Carl\u2019s farm about 1:30.\u00a0 He was just gassing up the combine.\u00a0 I climbed up and we drove to the field and began combining the prairie seeds.\u00a0 Within minutes, a Yellow Rail flushed from a few feet in front of the combine, and fluttered away from us \u00a0to a nearby ravine.\u00a0 I got a great view, particularly advantageous from 10 feet up on the combine for spotting from above the white trailing wing patch which quickly differentiates the Yellow Rail from the Sora Rail.\u00a0 We were both elated.\u00a0 Carl asked if I wanted to go back, or continue with the combining.\u00a0 I quickly accepted his offer to stay, and within an hour we had flushed 2 more Yellow Rails, both equally close and clear in the brilliant autumn sunlight against the golden-brown of the prairie.\u00a0 After the 3rd<\/sup> sighting, Carl offered to let me operate (drive only; I certainly couldn\u2019t be trusted with the other controls) the combine.\u00a0 Although I grew up on a farm, we did not have a combine while I was there, so this was an exciting, first time experience.\u00a0 I readily accepted and did a darn good job, too.\u00a0 We finished the field and drove back to the house, where Linda, Carl\u2019s wife, served delicious hot Lattes and homemade banana-chocolate chip bread.\u00a0\u00a0 This was the frosting on the cake of a truly delightful and memorable day, especially due to the warmth and hospitality of the Kurtz\u2019s on their Iowa farm.<\/p>\n Carl then took me for a drive to see another 80 acre prairie that he has developed from what was formerly a badly degraded pasture.\u00a0 He bought it a few years ago and it is now a place of rare beauty.\u00a0 A small stream meanders between the hills and the area was populated by pheasants and sparrows, particularly a large number of Vesper Sparrows.<\/p>\n The Yellow Rails become my North American Life Bird number 706, and Iowa Life Bird number 328.\u00a0 Thank you, Carl and Linda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have made several trips in the past few years for the specific purpose of seeing Yellow Rails.\u00a0 This spring Barbara and I went to the Anahuac Grassland Preserve east of Houston, Texas to participate in one of the annual … Continue reading