Hello! Sorry for the belated post, but yesterday afternoon I drove down to Charlie's Pond (south of Circleville) after I saw Paul Gardner's post about the Black Rail. I arrived just before 3:30 PM, parked my vehicle on the north side of Radcliffe Rd., got out of my car and walked back along the road, and within seconds by pure dumb luck I was in a stare down with a Black Rail about 15 feet away on the south side of the road! It was in a small clearing in a gravelly area next to the grass line adjacent to a small drainage pipe that runs underneath Radcliffe Road. We stared at each other for about 4-5 seconds and after I whispered "Oh my God" and picked my jaw up off the ground, I went to raise my binoculars at which point it turned around and went back into the vegetation. During those few seconds, I had a "full body view" and could clearly see it's red eyes. I heard one consistently calling for the next 20 minutes and then sporadically over the next 40 minutes before I left. As indicated in other posts, I'm fairly confident that I heard two calling as at times I would hear calls within seconds from areas about 40-50 feet apart. I never did (or probably never will again) see one after my initial view and unfortunately did not have my camera with me (it was in the car) to document the visual observation. Many thanks to Troy, Paul, and others for reporting this gem of a find yesterday! Rob Lowry Powell, Ohio **************Get trade secrets for amazing burgers. Watch "Cooking with Tyler Florence" on AOL Food. (http://food.aol.com/tyler-florence?video=4&?NCID=aolfod00030000000002) ______________________________________________________________________ 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]