Birds and Nature

I took this short video clip showing this Wood-Rail in late morning on Monday, July 15, before I left to drive back to Colorado. It forages in the open water of the wetland at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge where it found some great habitat to meet it’s needs in this location hundreds of miles north of it’s normal range. (I suggest watching the video in full-screen mode to truly see this bird as it successfully looks for fish in the water). I am disappointed that Youtube compresses the videos so some quality is lost. Though there is a rear-view much of the time, the Wood-Rail does turn several times, with nice filtered light hitting it, providing nice views of it's colorful plumage. SeEtta

The Rufous-necked Wood-Rail only showed briefly and very early on Sunday morning so I drove up to the nearby mountains to look for birds there where the temperatures were a lot less than the mid-nineties they have been at Bosque del Apache NWR. When I returned in late afternoon the bird had been out for several hours giving it's usual great views to dozens more birders. It came closer to the far end where I was standing and the light was quite good when I got these photos. I was able to crop these photos larger because the bird was closer. I really like getting these views of it's eyes--they look brownish or even rufous like it's plumage. I can finally see a little of it's whitish chin I have read about plus the following Cornell Lab's Neotropical Birds site : "Dull olive-green back with a triangular gray patch on base of nape." SeEtta