[TN-Bird] Standifer Gap Marsh, Least Bittern, Virginia Rail
- From: "David & Gloria Patterson" <dgpatterson@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 16:17:04 -0000
Standifer Gap Marsh, Chattanooga, Hamilton County, TN
June 13, 2003, 10 - 12 AM
This is long; in brief: Two young Least Bitterns and some possible young
Virginia Rails.
VIRGINIA RAIL: Standing at the east edge of the water, I heard a Virginia Rail
alarm note, repeated emphatically, but I couldn't see the rail. After a few
minutes I began wading thru 5-foot cattails toward it. It kept making the
alarm notes and kept about 5 or 6 feet from me, and eventually I had followed
it about 150 feet to the edge of the grassy field, where it stopped sounding.
(I decided that it thought I was lost in the marsh and needed to be guided to
appropriate human habitat.)
I waded by another route back to the spot where I first heard it, and again it
began the alarm notes. This time I didn't move, and it came closer, and I had
excellent views. It was rather dull looking except for the red bill. Three
times I thought I glimpsed a smaller immature; once I thought I saw a bit of
black down. I searched the area for a nest, with no luck.
During the entire time I could hear other Virginia Rails a few hundred feet to
the north, making the usual 2-note mating call and sometimes the descending
laugh. One seemed to be making 3-note calls.
MUSKRAT: In the same area there are 5 clumps of Iris (these had large yellow
flowers a few weeks ago), dense, circular, 6 feet in diameter and 6 feet taller
than water level. The ground level under the clumps is about a foot higher than
the surrounding area, about level with the water. I found some apparent
simple, abandoned or unfinished, nests in the Iris. One nest had about 2
gallons of fine dead wet grass in 2-inch balls more-or less strung together
like sausages, in a heap. (Wednesday evening we had a hard rain). It looked
something like a big pile of horse manure. I dug around in this and found 5 or
6 baby rats, looked like muskrats to me, wide flat heads with squared-off
noses, about 6 inches nose to tip of tail, nice brown fur, 2-inch bare black
rough pointed tails, eyes not open yet. They scrambled to get under the nest
material I had pushed aside, made no noise, even when I picked them up by tails
or napes.
GREEN TREE FROG: While looking at the muskrats I came face to face with a
Green Tree Frog.
LEAST BITTERN: Still looking in the same clump that had the Muskrats I caught
a glimpse of something falling; it looked like an old cattail top, except that
I was in a clump of Iris. Poking around to see what it really was, I found it
was a young Least Bittern. It had apparently been above my head level all the
time I was examining the muskrats, and then dropped lower as I got closer to
it. It was hanging with its head caught in an axil of the iris, and I released
it. (I have since read that the young hook their heads over branches to help
in climbing; it could have gotten loose without my help.)
It was smaller than an adult, downy except for its wings. Its wing feathers
were still about 1/3 in quills. Its beak appeared nearly full sized, and its
legs were long and strong looking. It obviously could climb and walk pretty
well, but it would have been unable to fly. Later, in the same clump, I found
a smaller one, this one all downy and no obvious wing feathers.
There were two possible nests in the clump, nothing more than a 6-inch circle
with a handful of grass-like fibres flattened across the bottom.
I didn't see an adult at any time today; of course most of the time I was
looking down.
AMERICAN KESTREL: Four Red-winged Blackbirds were harrassing a Kestrel out
over the grass / parking lots.
CONSTRUCTION of the two new 5-foot culverts under the tracks is complete.
David Patterson
Chattanooga, TN
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