Davidson Woods

April 25, 2013 - Burlington KS
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 16, 1970
We're staying in a great Corp of Engineers campground below the dam at the John Redmond Reservoir, but with no Internet access there I write from the comfortable and elegant town library. We arrived two days ago and nearly froze the first night. Today after two days of sun, the temperature reached into the 60's. Still, we had hoped it would be a bit warmer by now. The local folks say this weather is very unusual for late April.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTWe're staying in a great Corp of Engineers campground below the dam at the John Redmond Reservoir, but with no Internet access there I write from the comfortable and elegant town library.  We arrived two days ago and nearly froze the first night.  Today after two days of sun, the temperature reached into the 60's.  Still, we had hoped it would be a bit warmer by now.  The local folks say this weather is very unusual for late April. Still, the storm that pulled in the cold air brought important rain to the area on Tuesday.  We drove across this storm going across Missouri and Kansas on our way in.  The fields are wet and the ponds are holding a bit of water.  That is good for the birds.  I'll provide complete lists later (when we have Internet in our living room), but for now can say we are finding regional birds that we don't normally find in the East.  Perhaps most fun is Harris's Sparrow that we have seen only twice before in the far north.  They winter here and are locally "a trash bird."  They are singing and entertaining us enormously.  We have also seen Greater Prairie Chickens, Swainson's Hawks, and a few Central States sparrows.  Most of the winter birds have left and many migrants have yet to arrive, but we are finding plenty of birds to look at. On the road for our anniversary we went out to dinner in little downtown Burlington last evening.  Good people here.  The section in this library on Kansas includes the book, Bloody Kansas that speaks of rougher times when that New York radical, John Brown, and others brought terrorism here.  Kansas became a free state and sent perhaps a larger share of volunteers than any other state to the terrible war for which our county seat of Gettysburg is best known. Tomorrow, we move about 150 miles west to near Great Bend and will visit the Quivara National Wildlife Refuge among other places before moving to higher plains in Colorado next week.  The weather forecast is good.  We will probably freeze again starting on May 2nd when we reach Gunnison in the Rockies.  Silly, I know, but the Gunnsion Sage Grouse are booming on the lek right now and will be finishing up shortly.  We have never seen this bird!  We must go to Colorado now.
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April 21, 2013 - Piney Mountain
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 16, 1970
The ship is equipped and all systems appear to be in order. We plan to rise early, breakfast, load the last minute items (including this computer), and depart at 7:15 so we can obtain a charge of propane in Shippensburg before 8 o'clock. Then we fill the gasoline tank at Giant, taking advantage of a 30 cent per gallon discount and aim the rig west on the historic Pennsylvania Turnpike. We usually avoid toll roads with the RV, but the tunnels make passage through the Ridge and Valley Provence much, much easier.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTThe ship is equipped and all systems appear to be in order.  We plan to rise early, breakfast, load the last minute items (including this computer), and depart at 7:15 so we can obtain a charge of propane in Shippensburg before 8 o'clock.  Then we fill the gasoline tank at Giant, taking advantage of a 30 cent per gallon discount and aim the rig west on the historic Pennsylvania Turnpike.  We usually avoid toll roads with the RV, but the tunnels make passage through the Ridge and Valley Provence much, much easier.  We woke up to a (29 degree F) freeze this morning.  The bird bath was covered with ice.  Still the forecast is for a warming trend and good weather at our first stop near Burlington KS.  The birders report active migration there, even a flyover of a pair of Whooping Cranes yesterday.  If we see them we will know we are not in Pennsylvania anymore.  Spring is here even if the weather does not know it, and tens of thousands of birds are moving north up the Mexican mainland, across the Gulf of Mexico, and over the plains.  We should encounter many of them in our travels.  This morning while carrying a load from the house to the RV I heard the calls of a Broad-winged Hawk, the first of the season, announcing its return to breeding territory in this forest.  I called to Anne and we spotted it flying across the back of our property.  How nice.  In a few days we may be finding Swainson's Hawk, a western species.  The reports indicate flocks of them sweeping across Kansas in the past few days.  We look forward to seeing them. It will be almost a week before we reach Colorado.  We're hoping the snow starts to melt.  We'll be careful and were sobered by the report of snowboarders being lost in an avalanche at one of the high passes.  Avalanche warnings give me the willies.  If the conditions are bad, we will stay off of the snow.  We won't reach the Rockies until the end of the month.  Remarkably, Denver was warmer today than here.  Jove, Allah, Jesus, Nature, or Zeus. Whatever you call the creator, give him/her thanks for the flowers.
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April 13, 2013 - Piney Mountain, PA
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 16, 1970
We are home and preparing to travel while undertaking various chores. Spring has arrived, supposedly, but not much sign of it here yet. We enjoyed a few warm days and then cold returned. We are beginning to eye Colorado where we will be camping in three weeks and shudder as each week brings another blizzard. This year we clearly left Florida too soon, but the birds are beginning to move and so must we.

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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTWe are home and preparing to travel while undertaking various chores.  Spring has arrived, supposedly, but not much sign of it here yet.  We enjoyed a few warm days and then cold returned.  We are beginning to eye Colorado where we will be camping in three weeks and shudder as each week brings another blizzard.  This year we clearly left Florida too soon, but the birds are beginning to move and so must we. Our garage project has been delayed but I have started trenching for the conduit and digging around the tree stumps.  I probably will succeed in installing the conduit, but machinery may have to remove the stumps.  Still I give it my best now that the spring moisture softens the soil.  I work on the stumps in the evening, not too much at any one time.  This morning I began on the conduit.  I had picked the route but was concerned with how I would cross under the basement steps.  I tunneled there successfully but encountered “unforeseen sub-surface conditions near the house.  A blob of concrete in the ground would not yield to the sledge.  I’ll run the pipe over it and use a couple of 45 degree bends to maintain the desired depth.  Now clear of the house, I hope there will be no buried rock under the driveway.  The RV shop turned our new car into a dinghy this week.  That took longer than expected and required several hours waiting over two days.  The good news is that the shop is about a mile south of the Gettysburg Roundtops and we made good use of our time to walk about the south end of the great battlefield.  Our candy blue Ford Focus is cute but probably not as good as the last one.  The mileage is a bit better but obtained by making the care less comfortable.  The communications system hogs the dashboard pushing the speedometer almost out of sight.  The radio controls are so complicated that the driver risks hazards changing stations.  We installed a trailer hitch but the manual says the car is not designed for towing a trailer.  Is one supposed to have one car to drive and one to tow the trailer?  We wonder how long all the computer controls will last. While home we have been away over two weekends.  We visited my sister in Princeton taking my mother so as to join a cousin hosting an Easter Feast with  my last uncle, my mother’s brother.  The visit was wonderful.  Last weekend we visited our daughter in Brooklyn and worked on wedding plans.  She entertained us grandly. I finished our taxes and my mother’s.  Hers were confounded by Dad’s death last year.  If it hadn’t been so late, we might have paid a few hundred dollars to a service to calculate that she owed zero income taxes.  That is awful!  Also this year brokers are reporting the bases of securities sold.  For both mine and hers the values were all wrong.  I listed the correct values on the tax forms.  I wonder it this will trigger audits.  Ugh! Anne worked a week at Apple Ridge and I am completing a small job for Buchart-Horn.  This may be our last year working at all.  Last year we made too much money.  Our largest expense became taxes.  That has not happened since we quit work.  Because of the increased income we could not deduct any of our medical expenses.  Until last year health care has been our largest expense in retirement.  It seems unfair that because we buy our own, there is now tax break for the expense until it exceeds 7% of your income.  The solution seems to be to reduce our income.  Our wonderful tax code encourages unemployment. So we prepare for our hunt for rare birds in Colorado. 
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Lee County Report - March 6, 2013
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 16, 1970
Partly cloudy, windy, and a cool 69 degrees F at this early afternoon. I guess we have to suffer with a bit more winter before spring reigns supreme.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTPartly cloudy, windy, and a cool 69 degrees F at this early afternoon.  I guess we have to suffer with a bit more winter before spring reigns supreme. Anne and I went out this morning to bird Sanibel Island.  We arrived at the Baily Tract at 7:30 in hopes of finding rail but only found the usual fowl.  Aid Monique confirmed her arrival at the condominium by text at 8:15 and we continued on to the Lighthouse Beach.  Getting out of the car I spotted a Magnificent Frigatebird overhead and called it out to Anne.  This was our first sighting of the year for this bird; we were thinking we would miss it.  We didn't see any Least Terns (still too early in the year but I was hopeful) but we did find a pair of Snowy Plover about a half mile west of the parking lot.  The tide was relatively high and we saw no other shorebirds on the beach.  A cold front passed through as we walked and a short shower dampened us.  This was not forecast.  The meteorologists, I believe, thought the air too dry to produce precipitation.  They were wrong but not by much.  Two ugly bands of clouds swept over the island and each brought only several minutes of rain before the sun broke through.  We made a quick auto run of the Ding Darling Refuge wildlife drive, but with the tide high there too we saw few birds before turning toward home to relieve Monique at Noon. Mom & Dad Woods had enjoyed a quiet morning staying inside and out of the stormy weather.  Yesterday afternoon they had walked to the pool and Dad had swum.  Mom sunned.  Yesterday was only the second time she had walked to the pool since her injury.  Anne and I swam laps and we all chatted with neighbors before returning to the condo to make supper.  Today's fresh coolness follows another fresher cold front that arrived last Friday.  Saturday was church day.  Anne took Dad to a Red Sox vs. Yankees spring training game on Sunday.  They dressed warmly.  I took Mom for a walk but the wind chased us back inside quickly.  On Monday it never reached 70 degrees and we skipped going to the pool.  The Davidsons stopped by for dessert and card playing that evening.  So our time goes.  We are starting to gather our scattered belongings as we approach the beginning of our last week here.  Though we have suffered a bit of cabin fever, we can't complain at having avoided the much rougher weather in Pennsylvania so far this month.  I'm guessing there is a foot of snow in our driveway now and hoping next week will be warmer and it will melt away.  One can always hope.  We'll have one day to visit the Everglades after Mary Helen arrives and hope the weather is good for that.  Our travel to Colorado and Wyoming this year could make the year's bird list large.  It would be nice to find a few more of the Florida specialties before we leave.  We picked up the Snail Kite and Scissor-tailed Kite earlier this week but still want the Caracara and Purple Gallinule.  We won't be able to go after the birds of extreme south Florida this year.  I believe Mom and Dad have done well here this winter, despite Mom's fall.  I'm saddened to think this may be their last here; perhaps it will be possible for all of us to do it one more time.  We'll just have to see what the situation is next fall and if we can all make it happen.  With Mom and Dad we take each day at a time, we can't know what next year will bring.  We are thankful there have been so many good days.
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Lee County - February 27, 2013
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 16, 1970
A peaceful day at Heritage Cove. This morning Monique, the aide for Mom and Dad, came into the kitchen to report what she thought was an alligator swimming across the lake. She was right. Mom said, “oh my.”

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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTA peaceful day at Heritage Cove.  This morning Monique, the aide for Mom and Dad, came into the kitchen to report what she thought was an alligator swimming across the lake.  She was right.  Mom said, “oh my.”  Anne and I brought their car in for service and picked up some groceries.  In the afternoon she joined a quilting group at the community center and I worked on taxes.  She had more fun.  Mom watched some TV and Dad napped a bit.  Later Anne and I swam and Mom and Dad walked to a bench on the circle around the lake.  They chatted with passers by including we when we finished our laps.  Then we all retreated to the apartment ahead of a brief shower marking the passage of a “cool front.”  John and Kristy are touring the Everglades today, so we did not go to the beach.  We were there Sunday and again on Tuesday when Kristy prepared a fine spaghetti dinner for the group.  Before supper we celebrated  bloody Mary Tuesday at the pool before showers chased on inside.  The red tide seems to be declining.  On Sunday there was an ugly line of dead fish, mostly channel catfish and weakfish, at the high tide strand, and we coughed from the irritating air above the surf.  Too bad that nature does much more damage than the BP oil spill that caused so much fuss a few years ago. We’ll see how the beach looks tomorrow.  We’ll bring dinner to the beach for another fine evening at Estero Bay Beach Club.  Anne and I will walk the beach looking for the first whimbrel of the season.  We’re watching the sky for a scissor-tailed kite, but have dipped so far.  Every day there are reports of their arrival about Florida.  Reports from PA are cold, cold, cold.  We’ll be home in a few weeks, so we’re rooting for an early spring.  Punxsutawney Phil said yes, but we don’t see it so far.  Meanwhile we enjoy a fine end of winter in south Florida.
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February 17, 2013 - Late Winter Cold Front
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 16, 1970
This morning is lovely sunny, but chilly with a brisk, almost fierce, northerly wind. Tonight will be cold with a freeze warning posted for the interior of the state. Tomorrow dawn should be calm and clear, but then the sun will go to work and restore the famous south Florida warmth. The termperature should break across 70 degrees tomorrow afternoon and reach 80 on Tuesday.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTThis morning is lovely sunny, but chilly with a brisk, almost fierce, northerly wind.  Tonight will be cold with a freeze warning posted for the interior of the state.  Tomorrow dawn should be calm and clear, but then the sun will go to work and restore the famous south Florida warmth.  The termperature should break across 70 degrees tomorrow afternoon and reach 80 on Tuesday. We're glad for this because Rob, Mark, and Joe have arrived at Fort Myers Beach.  Whereas Floridians enjoy a little cool in this season (even frost, but not a freeze because of the damage to plants) the tourists want warm weather for their Florida escapes even in February. Yesterday was a big day for us.  Anne and I took Mom and Dad to the opera at Noon.  We first dropped a car at the airport for "the boys" and then arrived at the theater to enjoy the live broadcast of Rigoletto from New York.  The Met seems to have found a motherload of great singers and gives them the opportunity to reach the world on Saturday afternoons.  The sad clown conducted himself disgracefully and suffered his grand tragedy with great song.  We wonderfully enjoyed the spaghetti musical despite its sad ending. Then we drove directly to the beach and were graced with a fine spaghetti dinner.  The weather was already chilly so we mostly stayed inside warmed by conversation, a bit of wine, and great company.  The travel, we were told, went very well.  The magic of telephone texting made the vehicle transfer a snap, and Rob remembered the route to the time-share.  The brothers made time for the traditional stop at Sun Harvest Citrus for refeshment and to purchase a key lime pie.  We enjoyed that that tasty dessert with dinner. We stayed to watch an episode of Wheel of Fortune before Anne and I drove Mom and Dad and the two vehicles back to Heritage Cove.  Mom went to bed, but Dad watched episodes of Pawn Stars until ten o'clock when Anne and I told him we were retreating to our bedroom.  This morning I prepared the usual Sunday full breakfast, this time with bacon, eggs, and toast.  Anne was going to serve grapefruit, but forgot.  Still, we had juice and coffee.  Blessings abound.  We had got up with plenty of time for arrival at the nine o-clock mass, but Dad tarried after breakfast and they left very late.  Anne fretted, but the next mass was not until eleven, so they went anyway.  I stayed home, cleaned the kitchen, and now post this news.  I also listen to the famous Decca (London) recording of Il Barbiere di Siviglia (with Nucci) on a compact disk.  This was a Valentine's Day treat between Anne and me.  Thanks Mark & Mary Helen for your guide to classical recordings that I perused during the bridal shower.  It led me to this recording. This afternoon we again go to the beach, as probably we will most days this week, packing the crock pot and ingredients for what looks to be an oriental brown rice dinner.  Have I mentioned lately that I married a wonderful cook?  We'll probably stay mostly indoors today, but if the wind is not too fierce Anne and I at least should make a walk down the beach.  The bad weather will at least reduce the number of people a bit.  The birds will be huddled.  They cannot stay inside. Mom was discharged by both the physical and the occupational therapist in the last seven days.  She has met her goals and is mostly making her way with the walker now.  We'll still use the wheel chair for longer treks as necessary.  She is a champ.  I feel bad asking her not to help too much.  As weak as she is her spirits are always good and her smile bright.  She sweetens the morning. Dad too is energenic at times and pushes hard, perhaps to boldly at times, on the walker .  I scold him to use the device when he at times abandons it.  We don't want another fall.  We scold him less for wanting many snacks; he takes great joy in small pleasures. So, they will be home soon and I finish these notes.  To quote the finale of Il Barbiere (though in Italian of course), "May love and eternal faith be seen to reign in your hearts."
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February 8, 2013 - Annother Day in Lee County
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 16, 1970
A bit warm and humid this morning, but much better than the forecast for the Northeast today. We are pausing before lunch after a busy morning. Anne and i jogged at dawn watching a sliver of the moon above the brightening horizon and hearing a mockingbird give its wonderful song of triplets. A flock of fish crows passed over in the semi-darkness giving their anemic ca, ca, ca, ca calls. Then with the sunrise a string of white ibis (Chokoloskee chickens) swept across Heritage Cove before a red-shouldered hawk began its pronounced jeer, jeer, jeer call and soared from
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTA bit warm and humid this morning, but much better than the forecast for the Northeast today.  We are pausing before lunch after a busy morning.  Anne and i jogged at dawn watching a sliver of the moon above the brightening horizon and hearing a mockingbird give its wonderful song of triplets.  A flock of fish crows passed over in the semi-darkness giving their anemic ca, ca, ca, ca calls.  Then with the sunrise a string of white ibis (Chokoloskee chickens) swept across Heritage Cove before a red-shouldered hawk began its pronounced jeer, jeer, jeer call and soared from the oaks to a corner of one of the apartment buildings.  After our run and stretches Anne took Mom to the doctor for a routine appointment, but one coming at a time when increased shortness of breath made it  worthwhile.  The doctor will adjust her medications.  Her heart is extended and weak.  Still, she is recovering well from the fall and pelvis fracture.  The physical therapist discharged her yesterday.  She is mostly walking with the walker.  We are still wheeling her to and from the pool. Dad is mostly staying out of trouble, meekly requesting only a cookie or two after breakfast and lunch, like Oliver Twist.  Hard Anne relents to give him a bit.  He settles for only N.A. beer until suppertime thus avoiding what had been a daily mid-day issue.  His weight may be increasing only slightly.  We do what we can. The aid, Monique, is great.  She relieves us in the morning and lets us even escape the condominium for a few hours on some days.  This morning Anne and I went shopping after the doctor's appointment.  She picked up parts at Lowes for the curtain she is making for Elley and then we made the weekly grocery shop before returning.  Mom & Dad will nap after lunch and then we will all go to the pool between three and four o'clock.  This is Friday and so we will join the Heritage Cove potluck supper at the community room this evening.  We missed a couple of these but returned last Friday night.  There were many greetings from friends happy to see Mom and Dad again.  They are perhaps the elder sages of Heritage Cove.  Anne and I work on our chores.  Our summer plans are a bit complicated.  We will return to South Mountain in March to raise a garage in April.  Then we will drive to Colorado and tour in search of birds and scenery in May.  We will shiver a bit, I am sure.  Then we will dump our rig in Cheyenne WY and drive home at the end of May to prepare for and celebrate the wedding.  At the end of June we will return to Cheyenne, reprovision the rig, and tour the Black Hills, Yellowstone, and Teton in July.  We will be home again in August.  Anne will work a bit in Gettysburg.  Our fall plans are a bit undefined, but we will find something to do, I'm sure. We have a week before company arrives.  That will be a great time and we will be much busier.  We will try to keep the time from being to stressful on all of us as we enjoy treks to the beach.
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February 5, 2013 - Anniversary in Lee County
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 16, 1970
There is a pause in the action as Mom, Dad, and Anne enjoy lunch on the screened porch. It is 74 degrees and sunny in south Florida. This morning we rose early and attended the 8:30 mass at St.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTThere is a pause in the action as Mom, Dad, and Anne enjoy lunch on the screened porch.  It is 74 degrees and sunny in south Florida.  This morning we rose early and attended the 8:30 mass at St. Columbkille Church.  After the service there were many greetings as friends paused on their departure to greet Mom, who has been absent as consequence of her broken pelvis.  Then we retreated to the chapel where Father Joe welcomed us and spoke words, including a recital of Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians on love.  It was lovely, and it turns out Father Joe is one of 12 siblings.   Running later than planned, we returned quickly to the condo where aid Monique was waiting at the door for us.  She worked with Mom while Anne prepared poached eggs and toast for all of us.  Then Anne and I went to the grocer where we picked up the anniversary cake (not many made saying 69 years), roses, and hors d'oeuvres for the small party this afternoon.  The champagne is in the refrigerator.  We anticipate a festive occasion.  After that we run to Bob and Mary's for dinner.  What a celebration! Mom and Dad say they miss you all, but are very happy to be here where they can walk outside and float in the pool during the winter season.  Anne and I are blessed to be able to share this time with them and look forward to seeing those of you who will come this way this month and next.  In closing I bring to your attention once again the time span of 69 years.  I have not yet lived that long, and though decades now seem short, that is still a very long time to have held love and life together.  Let us all make a toast this evening together and separately to the loving couple who have brought all our lives together.  Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad.
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Fort Myers (Area) January 19, 2013
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 16, 1970
As reported earlier, Anne and I have settled into the condo with Mom and Dad. We are at the end of a first full week that has been a bit more exciting than necessary, but still pleasant and lovely. January weather is often eventful in January and this week brought a cold front and now unsettled weather. Still, compared with the weather on South Mountain this week, it has been wonderful.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTAs reported earlier, Anne and I have settled into the condo with Mom and Dad.  We are at the end of a first full week that has been a bit more exciting than necessary, but still pleasant and lovely.  January weather is often eventful in January and this week brought a cold front and now unsettled weather.  Still, compared with the weather on South Mountain this week, it has been wonderful.  Mom fell on Wednesday and fractured her pelvis a bit (hairline fractures of the pubis).  That resulted in a trip to the E.R. and now more limited mobility and doctor's visits.  We can deal with that and try to maintain her mobility as she heals.  She maintains good spirits but is of course frustrated by increasing fragility.  Dad is doing well but increasingly demands little comforts to excess.  His daughters, and now Anne alone, say no when he wants more snacks, desserts, or adult beverages than his allotted portion.  He accepts that, but misses the satisfaction of more treats.  Anne and I jog each week day and swim laps at the pool most days.  Since one of us should be with parents or parent all of the time, we are mostly at Heritage Cove.  We do have in an aid at least twice a week which should allow us a joint venture out at times, but so far since Mary Helen left, we have not chanced it.  We are not yet comfortable enough with the aids.  We stay busy with Mom and Dad and our own business chores, travel planning, and hobbies.  So far it has been pleasant to be away from the house with its demands and the cold of South Mountain.  We may start getting antsy soon, though.  The south Florida tourist season is in full swing and this year is better than last.  Even the price of real estate is going up.  That is both good news and bad, good for the economy but bad for those of us who remember south Florida before it turned into an endless series of gated communities.  The wilds of south Florida shrink faster than half-gallon ice cream containers.  Still one finds bits of paradise left and of the wildlife that once was more widespread and abundant.  We have already had the joy of watching  roseate spoonbills and wood storks this year.  I joke that the latter is the most conspicuous rare bird in America.  The pair of bald eagles along A & W Bulb Road have begun nesting again even as the highway department is widening that street to four lanes.  We see one or both of them almost daily from here at Heritage Cove.
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Quest for the Black Rail January 2013
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 16, 1970
I have neither seen nor even heard the Black Rail, a tiny and secretive marsh bird with a limited and scattered range. Since much of its range is along the Eastern Seaboard, an area I have long inhabited, my failure to detect this bird is a bit of an embarrassment, and one which I endeavor to correct. Still, that is not easy.

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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTI have neither seen nor even heard the Black Rail, a tiny and secretive marsh bird with a limited and scattered range.  Since much of its range is along the Eastern Seaboard, an area I have long inhabited, my failure to detect this bird is a bit of an embarrassment, and one which I endeavor to correct.  Still, that is not easy. Serious birders understand the challenge of finding this bird.  It is certainly practical to hear (and definitively identify - and so list) this bird if one is willing in May or June to drive to a remote location in a coastal salt marsh in the middle of a still and moonless night and listen for the phrase “kick-a-poo” to be recited repeatedly in the distance and then go back to the lodge to rest and sooth the mosquito bites sustained during the endeavor.  Finding the bird may be more difficult today because the species may be seriously declining for unknown reasons that probably include habitat destruction and alteration associated with the expanding primate population of the region, but still it can be accomplished.  So, why have I not found it?  Well, not living within reach of the bird at home, I have to make a special trip for it.  I have not done this in large part because the satisfaction to be obtained from hearing the bizarre calling while standing in the dark in a mosquito infested place does not seem worth the expenditure of resources necessary, that is of the cost in time and money to drive and take lodging and of the nocturnal trudging by car and on foot along unfamiliar and somewhat hazardous backroads. I seriously consider a spring RV tour of southern New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland in search of this bird, but even that would be a bit of a challenge.  We would probably adopt a sleep time of 4:00 p.m. to midnight so that we could scour the marshes beginning at 1:00 a.m. and have several hours of search time before dawn.  Have you ever tried to live on such a schedule, especially when staying in a public campground? Quiet times seldom begin before 10 p.m. So far, I have tried to find this bird during daylight hours with a small hope of actually seeing one.  There are well known Black Rail locations.  One is a pier at a convention center on South Padre Island, Texas.  Anne and I spent a week at Brownsville one spring and visited this pier on at least four dawns and dusks.  We enjoyed eyeing many Clapper Rails and a few Virginia Rails and Sora Rails.  We spotted zero Black Rails. Since our son lives and works near Palo Alto, CA, we hope some day to visit during December or January when famously (among birders) Black Rails are pushed from their marshy meadows onto the higher banks where they are exposed to view by extreme high tides.  In recent years we have, for social reasons, spent this season at home in Pennsylvania or in south Florida.  Some year, perhaps, we will go west and see them there. Speaking of Florida, it is famous for Black Rail, but mostly farther north.  It apparently does not breed in south Florida, and if it winters here nobody seems to have noticed.  I suspect it is very rare here in part because mangrove forest occupies the coastal zone taken by short marsh grasses and sedges north of Tampa.  To visit the rail’s habitat farther north would require the same kind of expedition mentioned above for the Mid-Atlantic states.  Still, when in possible habitat we look and listen for this bird, so far without success. We consider a stop on the way home this year in March.  We could make a short trip on day one to Hernando Beach and spend two nights there exploring the local salt marshes.  We would probably enjoy meeting some of the local constabulary along the way.  That brings up a serious problem with nocturnal birding.  Many of the best locations are within government parks which often “close” at sunset.  Unless the birder elects to risk trespass, they must bird from the public right-of-way.  That exposes one to traffic noise and the interest of both the local residents and law enforcement officials.  If you tell them that you are looking for birds, the former view you as loony and the latter as suspicious.  In any case, being examined by strangers distracts from the quest and allows the birds to silently wander off. One way of attracting the bird or at least inspiring it to call is to play a recording of the species call.  Birds call to give notice of their presence and to initiate social contact.  So, desiring social contact with the bird, calling seems an ideal approach for the birder.  Yet, some people object to it, and making the call is considered illegal in some locations.  Supposed naturalists are afraid that the pitiful little bird will be unduly distracted by the sound of its kind.  My view is that except under a few extraordinary circumstances, birds are accustomed to hearing the call of their kind and react to it as to their mood.  In some cases that is with fury, in others with keen to mild interest, and often it is not at all.  Hearing its call is part of bird life.  Compared to such things as driving down a road, walking down a trail, bringing a mirror (as on an automobile) into the woods, or running dogs on a beach, making vocalizations are a trivial disturbance to the birds.  In any case, to make the quest more difficult there are places where I may not imitate or play recordings of the call of the Black Rail.  We currently plan a spring 2013 RV voyage to Colorado.  I notice that along the way are two places where black rails breed in Kansas and Colorado.  Since they should be calling at this time, probably we will plan stops there and at least spend a night or two listening for the elusive call of the Black Rail.  Wish us luck. Kick-a-poo.  Kick-a-poo
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