King Rail

We had a men’s breakfast at church at 8 this morning (10 July 2004). I thought I would go to a lake before the breakfast and watch. As I walked to the lake a Red winged Blackbird greeted me. When I got there a bird flew up into a dead branch that was about 3
feet above the water.

I keyed it first as a Least Bittern
It had a black head scruffy (ruffled) head feathers in the breeze.
white and brn eye stripe.
brn on the back of the neck.

Then looking a little more I decided that it was a King Rail. Clapper Rails hybrid with King Rails so it might be a hybrid, between those two. It did not have a buff colored wing
of a Least Bittern.

The King Rail sat on the branch for a while, changing positions from time to time. Later it dropped back into the grass and I never saw it again.

The activity of the lake was busy. Birds were flying back and forth. On an island out in front of me I could see a 10” tree had been fallen by beaver within the past year. The wood where they had chewed was still light so it was recent. Early morning mist came off the water as the sun rose. I allowed a cottonwood sapling about 10’ tall to shade the sun.

Blackberries usually ripen before the 4th of July. This year they are slow. It has been the best summer that I can remember. 1993 was a good year for temperature. That was the year that of a lot of flooding. In between the rains it warmed up. This year it has not warmed up with humidity until today. This afternoon you could really feel humidity. The blackberries will probably ripen now.

I hope to return with a bag to pick blackberries.

Job 12:7-9 “But now ask the beasts,and let them teach you; and the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you. Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you; and let the fish of the sea declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this.”