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Zapata Rail rediscovered (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Melanie
- Start date
temmie
Well-known member
what are the recent events?
ps: when I was at Zapata back in 2018, there simply wasn't too much wiggle room: the track petered out, at both sides you had wide channels filled with water... I reckon you need plenty of time, a boat, plenty of patience,... As there is no sound known, you cannot, like with other rails, rely on hearing the rail or trying to use playback. This makes any search pretty frustrating, I would think. Kudos to Andy for having that patience / persistence.
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jurek
Well-known member
Is it really more shy than many small crakes and rails living in similar habitat?
A wide channel is very unlikely to give an observation of a rail, even if it is calling nearby. When I started birding, I spent literally hours listening to rails and crakes few m away, and they never went this few feet to either dry grass, or deep water. They avoid deep water.
When one hears a rail (I assume the call is uncertain, not definitively wrong), one needs nearby area of open mud or very shallow water bordering marsh vegetation. Somewhere when a rail can walk, not swim, and where the ground will be wet. If the vegetation is thick, one needs to make a flat path or passage by flattening the vegetation. Bother not with damaging the vegetation, it will rise again. But make sure that there appears a long border of tall vegetation and wet ground where the bird can walk out. Then, back off and wait at the safe distance. Make no sudden movements nor noises. And you will be surprised: magically invisible bird will show itself, sometimes walk right up toward you, and you will wonder how it managed to stay invisible.
It can take hours, sometimes few days for one bird. It may require getting uncomfortably wet or covered with mud (but at least Cuba is not near-freezing like Europe or Canada). It may require swimming to a likely spot with your bins and camera wrapped in plastic and perhaps on some floating support like inflatable pillow or a piece of wood. But it needs less money, time, discomfort and effort than many birders take to see a rarity in Europe. And is much like many bird photographers take photos of waterbirds at eye level.
A wide channel is very unlikely to give an observation of a rail, even if it is calling nearby. When I started birding, I spent literally hours listening to rails and crakes few m away, and they never went this few feet to either dry grass, or deep water. They avoid deep water.
When one hears a rail (I assume the call is uncertain, not definitively wrong), one needs nearby area of open mud or very shallow water bordering marsh vegetation. Somewhere when a rail can walk, not swim, and where the ground will be wet. If the vegetation is thick, one needs to make a flat path or passage by flattening the vegetation. Bother not with damaging the vegetation, it will rise again. But make sure that there appears a long border of tall vegetation and wet ground where the bird can walk out. Then, back off and wait at the safe distance. Make no sudden movements nor noises. And you will be surprised: magically invisible bird will show itself, sometimes walk right up toward you, and you will wonder how it managed to stay invisible.
It can take hours, sometimes few days for one bird. It may require getting uncomfortably wet or covered with mud (but at least Cuba is not near-freezing like Europe or Canada). It may require swimming to a likely spot with your bins and camera wrapped in plastic and perhaps on some floating support like inflatable pillow or a piece of wood. But it needs less money, time, discomfort and effort than many birders take to see a rarity in Europe. And is much like many bird photographers take photos of waterbirds at eye level.
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Maffong
Well-known member
For example this:
Which sight records are reportable? – Mammal Watching
www.mammalwatching.com
It only gets interesting quite late in the comments, when Carlos Bocos joins in...
This one of quite a lot of cases where a "Holy Grail" species is claimed by him, but no proof is provided. Just last week he claimed to have seen Helmeted Guineafowl ssp. sabyi (or at least some of their ancestors). Given that they are believed to be extinct a little documentation would have been great and surely it's not too hard to get a picture of such a conspicuous bird, right?
Anyways, this thread is about Zapata Rail. I doubt that a random birder will have mich success in the few days they can spare around Zapata swamp. A scientific expedition on the other hand should be able to gather the necessary resources and develop a methodology with high success chances, shouldn't it?
Mysticete
Well-known member
Yeah this was it...I think I was looking for the initial Java report, where I assumed the discussion was in.For example this:
Which sight records are reportable? – Mammal Watching
It only gets interesting quite late in the comments, when Carlos Bocos joins in...
This one of quite a lot of cases where a "Holy Grail" species is claimed by him, but no proof is provided. Just last week he claimed to have seen Helmeted Guineafowl ssp. sabyi (or at least some of their ancestors). Given that they are believed to be extinct a little documentation would have been great and surely it's not too hard to get a picture of such a conspicuous bird, right?
Anyways, this thread is about Zapata Rail. I doubt that a random birder will have mich success in the few days they can spare around Zapata swamp. A scientific expedition on the other hand should be able to gather the necessary resources and develop a methodology with high success chances, shouldn't it?
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