This reply is a little late; I am just working my way out from under an
avanlanche of grading as the semester draws to a close here.

The report of a fall Yellow Rail in Ohio reminds me of many years ago when I
was living in Lubbock, TX.  My birding partner then was Kent Rylander, the
well-known ornithologist on the faculty of Texas Tech.  Neither Kent nor
anyone else in Lubbock County had ever seen a live Yellow Rail, but every
fall 1-3 would be brought in to Kent's lab by farmers who had "combined"
them while harvesting crops.  This is another indication of how tight these
birds sit, that they would go into the maw of a combine rather than flush.

The point of this piece is that local farmers may be a source of Yellow Rail
records, though perhaps "specimens" might be a better term.  I doubt that
there would be many Yellow Rails found in corn or soy bean fields, but any
large grain field may produce many more Yellow Rails than we would guess
from the paucity of records by birders.  I would hazard a guess that the
bird Jim reported may well have wound up in the car lot dazed and confused
after a close encounter of the agricultural kind.

Cheers,

Bob

--
Robert D Powell
Wilmington, OH, USA
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Nulla dies sine linea

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