Jeez, if there is one consistent theme this year it's been the number of times St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge has saved the day with bird species for Heather and I. July 19 was no different. Heather, our friend Ben, and I went down to St. Marks to simply see what we could see. With no expectations, we rolled in and drove down to the lighthouse. Maybe we'd get some new terns, our missing American Oystercatcher, or something else!
Immediately, we noticed several terns flying over Lighthouse Pool. We pulled out the field guide and began going through our field marks. Forsters, Royal, Least...and...what's that one? We looked carefully at some different-looking terns and it didn't take us long to realize that they were our first Common Terns of the year! Woohoo!
We looped around the pool, dealing with the ever-present no-see-ums along the way. As we rounded the loop, I heard a distinct machine-gun call. I vaguely recognized the call, but it sounded pretty distinct from what I was used to. "Could that be a Marsh Wren?" I asked. Heather thought it wasn't, until we played the call. For once, I was right about a call and we had our first Marsh Wren of the year!
Now, in terms of new birds for the year, the story ends there. But Heather and I both had a lifer sighting when we looked down from the overlook tower near the lighthouse and saw something neither of us could believe. A dark rail was walking across the open salt flats below us! I initially thought, "Wow, that's a very dark Clapper Rail." When I got out my field guide, however, it became immediately obvious that this was no Clapper Rail. Unbelievably, this was a juvenile King Rail completely ignoring the fact that it's supposed to be elusive and rare! Heather and I got incredible looks through the scope and were beside ourselves with excitement. St. Marks...you did it again!
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