King Rail: an Endangered Species

 This Wednesday, Feb 2, 2022, is World Wetlands Day. On average, wetlands don't get a lot of respect. They have been viewed negatively as being in the way to productivity, especially agriculture. Certainly drained wetlands can be extremely productive, especially for certain crop types. But their value to wildlife, their ability to stop or at least slow down flooding and the like, were often ignored. Eventually enough flooding catastrophes occurred and they received an increasing level of protection. Of course it helped that many outdoors people recognized their values to wildlife as well, and organizations like Ducks Unlimited and their members spent untold millions of dollars over the years to help protect them. Provincial and federal agencies also contributed in various ways, resulting in places like St. Clair National Wildlife Area. Provincial and national parks often included significant wetlands within their boundaries.

St. Clair NWA

Rondeau Prov Park

I decided that to highlight World Wetlands Day, I would feature the King Rail. King Rail has only been known to breed in significant wetlands across the southern parts of Ontario, and has never been abundant. There are a small number of observations in areas slightly north of southern Ontario, but I am not aware of any confirmed breeding. It has been officially listed as an Endangered Species for around three decades, primarily due to the diminishing of its wetland habitat.

I have a copy of an unpublished manuscript, written in the later 1940s, entitled "The Birds of Kent County, Ontario" by A. A. Wood. He researched and quoted from almost 100 sources of information on birds, including some of the best known naturalists of the previous several decades. Some of the names that frequently crop up in his writing include J. L Baillie, A. C. Bent, Thomas McIlwraith, G. T. McKeough, Ed. W. Sandys, W. E. Saunders, G. M. Stirrett and P. A. Taverner.

Wood has an entry for King Rail, and I include part of it here: 

King Rail (Rallus elegans)--A rather scarce summer resident except at the St. Clair marshes where it breeds regularly. Morden and Saunders, in 1882, listed it as "common at the St. Clair flats where it breeds". McIlwraith said in 1884, 'is now known to breed plentifully at the St. Clair flats". Baillie and Harrington state "This rail occurs as a breeding species in various marshes on Lakes St. Clair and Erie.......it is not common in Ontario except at St. Clair flats". 

Wood goes on to include writings by various field people describing their findings of adults with young as well as nests with eggs. He also lists various observations dating to the 1880s as well as a few examples of eggs that were collected, back in the 1890s. Of course egg collecting was commonplace in that era. He mentions that the average arrival date over a four year period was April 23, with the earliest being April 3, 1945.

One of the places where King Rail was found back in that day, was well away from these lake side wetlands. It was at a fairly large inland marsh at Thamesville, in May of 1921. Although that wetland still exists, sort of, it has deteriorated considerably due to being almost totally taken over by the invasive Common Reed (Phragmites australis). These next two photos show a side-by-side capture of this wetland at the western side of Thamesville. It is solid Phragmites, with very little wildlife value.

The status of King Rail in Ontario since Wood's writing has since declined. It is not common anywhere, even the St. Clair flats, which was the accepted name for the collection of many marshes bordering Lake St. Clair. The wetlands at Walpole Island First Nation, shown below, is one of the largest contiguous marshes in these lakes. However the vast majority of it is inaccessible.

Walpole Island First Nation

 If one spends a lot of time in the vicinity of some of the major wetlands, such as those along Lakes St. Clair and Erie, one may still find evidence for King Rail. But don't count on seeing them. If you are very fortunate, and can distinguish the calls of King Rail from the much more abundant and similar sounding Virginia Rail, you might be able to hear one. Sightings anywhere in Ontario are extremely rare. And finding a nest? Forget about it. I had the privilege of being with a fellow birder back in 1978, and we came across a King Rail nest. We documented it and reported it to the Ontario Nest Record Scheme, part of the Royal Ontario Museum's program. These next two images are, of course, scanned from slide film taken on that occasion.

 To my knowledge, that was the last time a nest has been found in Ontario! That isn't to say that they haven't occurred, but the habitat they occur in is almost impossible to get through. The nest site we found was actually somewhat approachable, due to the fact that we had a small boat and chest waders. Unfortunately the site had the water levels altered in subsequent years, and there hasn't been suitable habitat for King Rail there for about 4 decades.

One of the highlights of late summer 2019 was to discover a King Rail at a wetland in southern Chatham-Kent. A bonus was to discover one, and possibly three, almost fully grown young! The site was reasonably accessible, so I decided to try for some new photos to add to my collection. I headed out, and very carefully got into a position where I thought I would have a reasonable chance to see some movement of the rails scurrying around for food. I had the maximum telephoto combination, to ensure the best quality images from a distance so as to minimize any disturbance if the birds should show themselves. After waiting patiently and quietly, I saw some movement: a rail!

But it clearly wasn't a King Rail. It was a much smaller rail called a Sora. It scooted about for a short time, but eventually disappeared into the denser vegetation.

After a bit more patient waiting, this young King Rail appeared from behind some vegetation.

It came a bit closer, but was wary, slowly and cautiously moving across the more open area...

...but eventually decided a less open bit of the habitat was more to its liking.

I kept an eye open for an adult. Sure enough, a little bit of movement got my attention. Can you see the adult King Rail in the next photo? It is in the centre, staring at us.

It came out a little more, but cautiously just like the younger one.

It came out into the open more and more, allowing me to get a few photos. All of these are well cropped, but quite acceptable since it was out in the full open spot, at least for a short time.

I've heard a couple of King Rails since that event, but always in the spring or very early summer when they are typically more vocal. None have been reported from this particular site, however. Hopefully with the efforts of the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas, some successful discoveries of this incredible bird will be documented.

 

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Wonderful Waterbirds

 It is that time of year when birds are on the move southwards. Fortunately there are some great places in Chatham-Kent which attract these migrants, enabling them to replenish their energy reserves before making the next leg of their journey.

There is no question that the high water levels in the Lake Erie region, and elsewhere, have caused problems for humans living near the water front. But for water birds, it has been great. For example the flooded fields of the Keith McLean Conservation Lands just outside of Rondeau Prov Park, is being well used by many species of water birds.

For birders, shorebirds are of particular interest right now, as the many thousands of shorebirds that nested in the arctic or sub-arctic regions are now making their way south. Many will fly right over and beyond, but there are always a few that touch down locally at least for a little while.

At the area I refer to as Lake McLean at the KMCL, there are sometimes as many as 150 or so individuals of a dozen or more species at any one time. So far in the last 2-3 weeks there have been about 20 species observed, some quite common and others much rarer. The latter ones always garner a bit of extra attention from birders.

The first few shown next are some of the regular ones, but still nice to see.

Greater Yellowlegs

This next one, Lesser Yellowlegs, is almost always more abundant than its larger relative.

The smallest regular shorebird is the Least Sandpiper, below. It is a first year bird.

Quite a bit larger is, in spite of its name, this Short-billed Dowitcher. There have been 1-5 of them at KMCL over the last few weeks, and a single member of its close relative the Long-billed Dowitcher has just been reported in the last few days.

A more slender appearing shorebird, often associating with the dowitchers, is a Stilt Sandpiper.

At least a couple of Stilt Sandpipers have been seen on a regular basis.

A shorebird that always gets the attention of birders is this next one, a Red Knot. This is a juvenile bird, so it doesn't show any reddish coloration that an adult in breeding plumage does. It looks a bit like a chunky dowitcher with a short bill (but not to be confused with a Short-billed Dowitcher :-)

It has been around for several days, and while it moves around quite a bit along the shores of Lake McLean, it can actually appear relatively tame. This next photo is a full frame shot, no cropping whatsoever. At one point I could barely get the full bird in my camera's frame. It is a seriously declining species in North America.

A somewhat more regular migrant, but not often seen on mud flats, is this Buff-breasted Sandpiper. It has a slightly warmer colour tone than many of the grayer shorebirds. It wasn't quite as tolerant as the Red Knot, and all of these images are greatly cropped. Fortunately the light was excellent at the time.

Along the lake shores, one is more likely to see this next shorebird, the Sanderling, as it scurries along the shoreline searching for tidbits of something at the water's edge.

Regular water birds in places like the KMCL include Great Egret.....

....and of course Great Blue Heron. This particular individual was exhibiting some territorial behaviour, as indicated by its upturned bill and fluffed feathers and strutting along in the direction of another one, just to the left of this photo. The one shown here was apparently trying to encourage the other one to leave, which after a few moments, was successful in doing.

The big news of the last day or so was the appearance of a young Purple Gallinule, found by Steve Charbonneau at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons. It is quite a rarity in Ontario, although it does show up somewhere in southern Ontario from time to time. This is the first record for it in Chatham-Kent as far as I am aware. It is a skulking type, and since it is most likely to occur at the muddy but vegetated edges of wetlands, those areas are often difficult to access and view, so it may be more regularly occurring than records would indicate.

As a young bird, it exhibits the warm brown colours, not the purple that it will look like in its later breeding plumage. This next photo shows the breeding plumage, a bird I photographed on May 6, 1984 at Tremblay Creek Conservation Area in the north east corner of adjacent Essex County.

In addition to the warm brown, which the regularly occurring relative Common Gallinule doesn't show, is the pale bluish shield at the top of its beak.

At one point one could see the Purple Gallinule and a Sora in the same field of view.

With shore and water bird migration in full swing and which will continue for the next few weeks, one can only imagine what else might show up!

Black Rail tale

Rails are always a treat to come across, and some of them are the most elusive species of birds in our area. It doesn't help that they occur in wetlands that are difficult to access, or at least see through. You've probably heard the expression 'thin as a rail', which refers to the fact that you can be staring through some of the dense cattail vegetation and all of a sudden a rail partially appears, and then just as suddenly, it is gone again, and you didn't even see the vegetation move. The birds aren't really thin, just really adept at getting through sometimes really dense vegetation.

 On occasion if you get a good vantage point and are very quiet, a rail might come out and spend a fair bit of time in the open, like this Sora did for me one time. It helps that it is probably the most common of all the rail species.

Probably less common, but still fairly widespread and abundant, is the Virginia Rail. Like all rail species, they are a lot easier to hear than to see. I think I've only photographed them on one or two occasions in more than 40 years but hear them regularly when I am in their habitat at the right time of year.

The rarest rail species that nests in Ontario is the King Rail, which is officially Endangered and protected by both provincial and federal legislation. It was never common, but restricted to some of the largest and best quality wetlands of southwestern Ontario. Nowadays, it is extremely rare, with probably fewer than a dozen or so pairs in the entire province. It is a difficult species to survey for, so we don't really know. It initially looks like a much larger version of the Virginia Rail. Even some of its calls are somewhat similar, although the King Rail is noticeably deeper and throatier.

 While the King Rail is occasionally heard in some of the larger marshes, actual breeding records are few and far between. Once in awhile one may spot a family of King Rails wandering along a dyke of a large marsh. But finding a nest is even less likely. I photographed this nest at McGeachy Pond Conservation Area, near Erieau.

The water levels there were not as controlled as they are now, and the habitat was better for King Rail. A photographer friend and I came across this nest and got some photos. This was back in about 1978, and as far as I know, that is the last time an actual nest was recorded in Ontario.

Yellow Rail is the smallest, regularly occurring rail species in Ontario. While historically they nested in some wet grassy areas in southern Ontario, if they do so now, observers are keeping quiet about it. The only place where they nest with any regularity is in the wet grassy areas of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, which are next to impossible to get to for the average birder. I was fortunate to have spent a couple of weeks in those areas on two successive years, conducting wildlife surveys in the very early 1990s. While I did not actually see a Yellow Rail, I did hear them on a couple of occasions.

Which brings us to the rarest and smallest rail in Ontario, the Black Rail. In my most recent issue of Birding magazine, which I get as a member of the American Birding Association, there was an excellent article on getting a youth nature club in Louisiana involved in trying to capture Black and Yellow Rails. It was supposed to be a special event to get young birders to see some of the rarest denizens of the grassy marshes, all the while helping out with the bird banding process. The article was quite intriguing, and reminded me of a very special time when I was able to hear, although not see, a Black Rail in Ontario.

It was during my years as the park naturalist at Rondeau Provincial Park. I spent a lot of my spare time roaming around the various habitats looking for things of interest, whether it be birds, plants, reptiles, amphibians or whatever. The Rondeau marsh was one of my favourite places at any time of the day, but particularly in the early morning or early evening hours when wildlife was more likely to be active.

The fluctuating water levels of Lake Erie, and therefore the adjacent Rondeau Bay and marsh, made a difference in what vegetation was dominant. For a few years in the early to mid 1980s, it was a time when Wild Rice, an annual species which depended on declining water levels and exposed mud flats later in the summer to grow well, was quite abundant. And it was in these extensive stands of Wild Rice where Soras could be quite abundant. I remember on more than one occasion taking a few small stones with me as I walked the marsh trail. Every once in awhile I would toss a stone into the stand of Wild Rice, and instantly there would be a chorus of Soras peeping. Over the course of my walk, I estimated on one evening that there must have been over 100 birds that responded.

Dense stand of Wild Rice along the Marsh Trail

It was the evening of August 17, 1985. I had walked the marsh trail and took the side trail over to Long Pond. The wild rice was not as thick there, but still fairly plentiful, and the water was quite shallow. All of a sudden the quiet evening was broken with "kik--ee--do, kik--ee", the distinct call of a Black Rail! That is all I heard, but the call of a Black Rail is one of the most distinctive bird calls there is, especially of any wetland species. You can listen to it here. I knew instantly what it was. Although I had never heard one in real life before, I had listened to recordings since I had been involved with a marsh monitoring program as well as been a regional coordinator for the Breeding Bird Atlas, where these recordings were available.

At this point, Black Rail had not officially been added to the Ontario Bird list. There had been reports, but none had met the criteria of any committee accepting records. The criteria were fairly stringent, as they should be. To accept a new species for the provincial list, the record should be well documented independently by at least two people, or there should be a specimen or a distinctive recording. The more evidence, the better. So although I knew that is what I heard, I was reluctant to report it since I knew it did not meet the criteria for acceptance.

Open water and Wild Rice along Long Pond trail

Eventually I did submit the record, thinking that even though it did not meet the criteria, at least the record would be in the books besides just my field notes and local records. After the bird records committee reviewed all of the submitted records, they reported on the outcome. Not surprisingly, my record was not accepted unanimously. It was a split vote. But at that time, people who submitted records usually got a summary of comments by committee members that decided the vote. While I was not surprised that my record was not accepted, I was both frustrated and amused at some of the comments. One of the most amusing, and in a sense outrageous, comments was "perhaps someone was playing a recording." I found this comment ridiculous for several reasons:
-I reported that the bird was about 40-50 metres away in a stand of Wild Rice. If someone was going to play a tape recording to attract rails, why would they leave the perfectly good trail to tromp and slosh through the Wild Rice a short distance away? Such noisy action would surely scatter any wildlife.
-the Wild Rice was not super dense, but growing on mud. If there was someone out there, they would have been easily seen at that distance;
-if someone was going to try calling for rails with a recorder, why would they be doing it in mid August, at a time when rails seldom call since it is after the breeding season? Calling in late May or in June would make sense, but mid August?
-if someone was going to try calling for rails, why would they play a call that only made the call once?

Nevertheless, such a comment by a committee member added to the debate about accepting the record or not.

Please note that the purpose of this part of the post is not to bash the bird records committee. Their job is to be skeptical, consider only the facts and weigh the information they have to deal with against the criteria that the committee has to work with. And they are human just like anyone else, so a committee will usually outweigh bias or a lack of reason in reviewing the many reports that are submitted. The members of the committee are absolutely some of the most knowledgeable and careful birders in Ontario. They should be congratulated for doing a job that requires a lot of knowledge and skill in analysis.

In retrospect, I could have included information that would explain the conditions and site specific circumstances so that this committee member's comments would not have been made. And I certainly recognize that by hearing the bird call only once, as distinctive as the call is, it was not enough evidence for officially adding the species to the Ontario list.

As much as anything, the purpose of this post is:
-to recognize that the committee members have an enormous task. Of course in this digital day and age, it is easier to get high quality photos and/or recordings of birds than there was back in the 1980s when most reports were only written submissions. But even at that, some photos just aren't clear enough (if only birds were considerate enough to be in those perfect lighting conditions.....), and certainly the written evidence is not always adequate to be 100% convincing;
-to encourage birders to make sure when they are submitting a report, to ensure that as much realistic detail as possible is included. The committee can only review what they are given;
 -to recognize that not all records submitted will be accepted, for various reasons. I expect that anyone who has submitted records, may have had some rejected. That is frustrating, to be sure, and in many cases it isn't because the bird was incorrectly identified, but the level of detail submitted may not have been sufficient for the committee to accept it. And let's face it, on occasion we may see a bird well enough that we are convinced of its identification, but because the observation was fleeting or some critical features were not noted, we can't include information that we didn't see or hear, and therefore the report just doesn't have enough convincing evidence. That is life, and that certainly is birding!
-it just so happens that today, April 7, the current committee met to consider the reports submitted over the course of this past year.

So next time you see one of the committee members, give them a thank-you for a task that isn't always easy.