The Pickaway Plains Black Rail was present again this morning. I arrived at Charlie's Pond about 0730 and found Suzanne Wagner, Jerry Talkington, and Ray Hannikman already on station. They had been there since dawn and had actually seen the bird. I joined them during a lull in the action and after about fifteen minutes, they took off to check out the airport area for possible Blue Grosbeaks. Shortly after they left, I heard a single vocalization on the east side of the slough. (This is on the south side of the road. The water level on the north side was very high owing to last night's severe storms; too high to leave any appreciable habitat.) This call was the tenor "kick me rearrrrr" included on most of the tapes, but it was uttered only once, which was something of a disappointment. Not to worry. At 0815, a bird started up on the west side of the slough. This call was a much more emphatic "kewpie DOLL," given in a more baritone register. This bird sang repeatedly for 30 minutes, including seven minutes of continuous vocalization. During this 30 minute period, there was one instance of two calls within perhaps two seconds, but separated by about 20 yards. Toward the end of this period, Aaron Boone arrived and he heard a similar combination of two calls at a short interval, but well separated spatially. Pete and Lucy Whan rolled up about 0845 and brought a fierce storm with them. We all scattered for our vehicles. I waited in the car for about 30 minutes. It was raining so hard that driving was really out of the question. By the time it began to slack off, I was out of time and was obliged to leave. On checking with Birds of North America, I find that both of the vocalizations I noted are well within the variation reported for male song. The female apparently does not often vocalize except when agitated. None of the descriptions of female vocalizations matched either of the songs I heard. My personal opinion is that there are very likely two birds present, with a non-negligible probability of three birds. Peterjohn states that Black Rail has occurred all over Ohio (albeit rarely) except in the unglaciated region of the southeast. Inasmuch as a pattern can be said to exist, this (these?) birds are late. Birds of North America cites a "definite" nesting record for Ohio, which is included in a large, amorphous area of local breeders extending from the central Great Plains up to the western basin of Lake Erie. This area is disjoint from the main breeding range along the south Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Given the furtiveness of this species, one must wonder how confident we can be about its breeding range. I personally have only one other record of Black Rail, March 1966 at Orton Plantation on the Cape Fear River south of Wilmington, NC. I had frankly given up hope of ever encountering another, so this was a very great pleasure. Cheers, Bob -- Robert D Powell Wilmington, OH, USA [log in to unmask] http://rdp1710.wordpress.com 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. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. 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]