Since rail nesting at Charlie's Pond now seems a possibility, here is
some information on the Ohio status of black rails.
        The only solid nesting record comes from 30 May 1996, when Wm. Richter
found a nest destroyed after a farmer moved a Mahoning Co field. This
pair may have renested (Ohio Cardinal 29(3):106), as singing went on
into July.
        Nesting was strongly suspected, but as far as I can tell never
confirmed, when many birds were found in Ross Lake Swamp in Hamilton
County 1890-1893. Specimens from among these birds number seven at the
Cincinnati Museum (Kemsies & Randle p. 17), and there is another at U
Cal Berkeley. The 5th edition of the AOU Checklist gives Hamilton Co as
the location of Ohio nesting records, but I don't know the source of
this information--anybody with better access to the Cincinnati natural
history journals of the day please let me know if I've missed it.
Neither Trautman nor Peterjohn knew of any solid evidence of Ohio
breeding by black rails, though both were aware of the Cincinnati
phenomenon.
        Trautman (Annotated List Bds of OH, 1968, p. 314) gives an Ohio late
date of 10 June 1923 for this species. It was an adult, and no evidence
of breeding was found at the site, near Buckeye Lake. This date is of
course superseded by Richter's, and Rosche gives a date of 21 July 1965
for NE Ohio.
        If these birds nest at Charlie's Pond, Pickaway County will be Ohio's
only county with nesting records of *all* of our rails. About four miles
north of Charlie's Pond, Ohio's first nesting yellow rails were found on
10 June 1907 (Ohio Cardinal 31(1):58-60.
        That's the history. Let's hope those rails make some more.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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