After a wait of nearly five hours standing watching a sorghum field about 25 of us were rewarded with the sounds and the sightings of 2 Yellow Rails and possibly 3. Our gracious hosts for the evening were Junior Nisley and his son, Johnathon. Their address is 23461 College Hill Rd, Danville, OH. For those of you that have chased the Knox County Raven(s) this is the very same area!! We arrived about 3:30. No one quite knew what to do - afraid of flushing the bird(s) before others could arrive. About 6:00 a young man put a temporary (live) wire fence through the sorghum and then let the cows into feed. Last evening this action had flushed the rails. Not so tonight. The cows munched and munched and we watched and watched. Finally all present formed a line and walked through the remaining sorghum field. We walked back. No rails. A few folks left. About 25 of us were still present and just chatting. Junior was saying how sorry he was that we had all come to see - nothing! Then about 8:20 and for no apparent reason we heard at least two Yellow Rails call. And, then we saw them fly INTO the sorghum! Where had they been? Why did they now fly? Everyone present saw and heard the birds. Now, the view was very, very brief and it was quite dark. But, it was a view. And, it was so neat to see how excited our hosts were that they could share their birds!

I spoke with Junior and his son Johnathon. They had worked in the field starting about 7:00 a.m. They neither saw nor heard anything then or at any other time during the day. It was about 7-7:30 when they discovered the birds last night. So, the evening is definitely the time to be there. It is OK for birders to be present tomorrow evening. I don't quite know what they are going to do with the cows tomorrow. I would suggest that folks arrive 6-7 p.m. and then wait until almost dark. 

Good luck if you decide to chase this bird!

Doreene Linzell
Dan Sanders
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