Everyone knows what a jinx bird is. It is a bird that dodges you like sanity does Michele Bachmann. No matter how hard you try to find a jinx bird it eludes you. They are frustrating, annoying, anger-inducing, and, when you finally find one, amazingly rewarding! Jinx birds are one of the aspects of birding that makes birding fun.
Anyway, the point here is, well, that Clapper Rails are not a jinx bird for me. In fact, they are the opposite of a jinx bird. Everyone always talks about how secretive rails are and how difficult it is to get a good look and I agree, most species are pretty darn unwilling to show themselves. But not Clapper Rails, at least not for me. For me Rallus longirostris is an anti-jinx bird. I can’t help but get good looks, as you will recall from my encounter last fall in Brooklyn. Amazingly, the looks were even better in my most recent encounter. How good? Judge for yourself!
At the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, otherwise known as Brigantine, on Sunday on my way home after the World Series of Birding I had a most marvelous encounter with a cooperative Clapper Rail. Maybe New Jersey isn’t so bad after all…
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I thought Clapper Rails were hard to see until I started spending more time in South Jersey’s marshes. They’re all over, and they’re not all that shy. On Saturday, there were Clapper Rails running along the road when I got to Reed’s Beach. At Forsythe and Heislerville, they often come out in the open, even in daytime.
“It is a bird that dodges you like sanity does Michele Bachmann”
LOL. Hohoho. That’s rich. I’ll have to use that one sometime.
Mmmm, clapper rails…can’t wait to see them. I heard they’re laterally compressed kind of like…like…Michele’s brain. Hehehe, hohoho.
@John: I wonder what is up with the south Jersey Clapper Rails?
@Jason: The sarcasm is deep in you – unlike the thoughts running through Bachmann’s head. Thanks, I have a million of them…
I’ve not been that fortunate with south Jersey Rails, usually I just hear what sounds like 1,000 and can’t see a single one. I have had great views of Clappers at Sandy Hook (there was the Century Run where we ate lunch at Horseshoe Cove while watching one walk up and down the mudflat) and at Big Egg, Jamaica Bay. My issue is the camera jinx. Whenever I see one out in the open, in great light….ooops, no camera.
You got some very nice shots, here!
Corey, now I know who Michele Bachmann is and what she stands for.
I am not sure that was good. I will however alert my German homeland security to deny her entry if she ever decides to pay us a visit.
@Donna: That is one of the basic rules of birding – no camera = great looks!
@Jochen: At the very least she should be met with a straitjacket and taken to a mental hospital for evaluation.
@Corey: yeah right, and what will the tea party do to get her out of a German mental hospital? Send SEAL team 6 ?!?
I call them nemesis birds Corey, but whatever you call them, they are frustrating. I have, fortunately, been picking up some of my jinx birds lately.
These are marvelous shots of the Clapper Rail! I especially like the shots that look like the bird is calling.
As far as sanity dodging Michele Bachmann, I LOVE THAT LINE! 😉 Can you imagine her running for president? Yikes!
Hurricane Irene blew several Clapper Rails onto my channel front property in Little Egg Harbor. One poor thing was blown into my neighbor’s pool where it was rescued and allowed to recuperate. So nice to see up close the bird that makes such a racket out in the estuary.
@Larry: In retrospect, you might have spoken too soon…
@Kathryn: I guess the silver lining is that you got to see them? And I wonder if the birds weren’t so much blown from their habitat as flooded out of it.