Birds and Nature

One last and very short video clip of the Rufous-necked Wood-Rail that I left before because it was so short. However, it shows the Rufous-necked Wood-Rail found as it forages less than a hundred feet away though on the other side of the cattails. This is the closest I saw this bird and I had to shoot it through the cattails that were between the trail and the marsh where the bird was foraging. I shot it on Sunday evening, July 14, at almost 7:30 pm but the lightening was quite good for showing the coloration of this rare bird (you can stop this 5 second video to get good views). SeEtta

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

This shows the Rufous-necked Wood-Rail found by Matt Daw, a highly skilled young birder, at the Bosque del Apache NWR. It is the first report of this species in the United States and has drawn birders from across the U.S. including Hawaii. In this video it is seen foraging in the open water in plain view by myself and other birders who were on a boardwalk over this wetland. Note video taken at 7:55 pm and the light was fading but I did not want to do any editing to avoid distorting this bird's natural and beautiful coloration. SeEtta