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 [log in to unmask] Nulla dies sine linea ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]