From the Contact Station June 2018

Rail On!

You have probably heard the phrase “thin as a rail” and some would think of the laterally compressed body of Rallidae, the family of rails, as these birds turn between the reeds and disappear quickly and frustratingly.  But, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, that phrase applies to a rod or a stick; not the bird as some of us would wish.  However, the term “to rail” at someone, does seem to have its origins with our family of fresh water marsh birds.  If you know the calls of our local Soras and Virginia Rails, you know they can sound loud and slightly maniacal. One birder recently said she thought of the Virginia Rail as sounding like a laughing pig.  I’ve never heard a laughing pig, but I do get it.

Our wetlands are filled with the calls of Sora and Virginia Rail right now.  Ker-wee, Ker-wee is the Sora call, which will also give a descending whinny, whee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee. While the Virginia Rail’s call is described as grunts and squeaks of varying spacing resembling tick-it or kicker. Sitting in the Contact Station, I am entertained by calls all day from the Long Lake area, especially the Sora. The hatchlings quickly exit the nest and are frequently heard to do contact calls, essentially keeping close to the parents as they roam.

The Virginia Rail, Rallus limicola, can be found on the refuge year-round, though certainly in greater numbers in the summer. They probe mudflats and shallow water for invertebrates, small fish, and the occasional seed. Because they are generalists in food selection, they can exploit a highly ephemeral niche.  With a flexible vertebra and the compressed body, a Virginia Rail can pass through dense marsh vegetation easily.  They are quite agile and will run when sensing danger, but they can dive and swim, using their wings to propel themselves underwater too. Being monogamous and territorial, they will set up a primary nest and “dummy” nests about water level, using emerging vegetation.  Under the right conditions, a pair might have a second brood.  Eggs are laid as they construct the nest, which takes about a week, and average clutch is around eight or nine eggs, but it can vary from four to thirteen.  Incubation starts a day for so before laying ceases and incubation is about nineteen days.  Both parents incubate.  As of about May 18^th, visitors have seen hatchlings.  They are strong enough to walk within eleven hours of hatching.  Usually they get feeding help for a few days from the parents and will follow them around but can also feed on their own in seven days.  They will brood together on the breeding territory for about a month and have been seen to fly from four to seven weeks when they have adult body proportions and body weight.

The Sora, Porzana carolina, is the most widely spread rail in North America.  Breeding grounds are northerly in the US and extend up into Canada.  Generally, they winter further south and into northern South America, however there have been a few sightings on the refuge noted in ebird for December and January.  The Sora likes freshwater marshlands and primarily feeds on seeds and invertebrates.  With its stubby yellow bill and black mask on face and throat bordered by gray, it can easily be told from the orange and longer billed and mostly reddish on brown Virginia Rail. Similar to the Virginia Rail, the nest is formed as a loosely woven basket of available emergent vegetation. It is suspended above water or in clumps of vegetation with the base of nest at or slightly below the surface of water. Often it is built with an overhead canopy made by bending over surrounding vegetation and tucking it into rim on opposite side. They generally lay eight to eleven eggs in a clutch.  Both parents incubate the eggs from sixteen to nineteen days.  A day-old chick can run down the nest ramp, but usually they stay in the nest for three to four days after hatching.  Chicks continue to receive food from parents for two to three weeks.  Soras move around primarily by walking and running.  They are reluctant fliers, yet in migration they will move hundreds of kilometers between nesting and wintering grounds.  Soras are territorial and will do “Swanning” displays at territory boundaries.  The display usually involves variations of bending down and forward while lifting wing feathers and spreading undertail-coverts.

Keep a lookout for our baby rails.  Cute doesn’t begin to describe these bundles of black feathers on stick legs.  They will be working the muddy edges of our marshes for tasty tidbits for a few weeks as they grow quickly to adult size.

-Susan Setterberg- Contact Station Volunteer and Board President
Photos: Lyn Topinka