This morning I had a couple hours off work, so I headed over to Killbuck Marsh Wildlife area. At the end of Force rd where the Eagle nest is, I walked back the trail to where it turns north. The water is low here and I heard a bird squeaking in the cattails.After waiting several moments a Virginia Rail walked out on the mud right into the open. What a veiw! The bird seemed like a adult the bill was orange. Also the bird was peeping in a manner I have never knew a rail could. Then a second bird was heard off to the left. I looked over and there was a second rail just at the edge of the cattails. This one seemed smaller and didn't have as much orange on the bill. But what caught my eye was a small black bird behind the rail! The rail came out of the reeds and began probing the mud like a dowitcher would. There was a small gap between the cattails maybe 3 ft or so and suddenly a very small black chick ran across this gap. Then I noticed several more chicks among the reeds, they were just black fluff balls on fairly long legs. They had short yellow bills with a black ring around the middle. When a chick decided to cross that gap it could really move! All together I saw 4 chicks plus the two adult birds,I was pretty excided! But really how many Rails are there at Killbuck? If every pair has 4 chicks, may I guess that in a few weeks rails will be common there! Willis Brubaker Wooster Ohio ______________________________________________________________________ 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]