Yellow Rail

What a day!  This morning we gathered in the conference room of the motel where we were greeted and told the virtues of growing rice.  It was actually quite interesting and the idea for the festival came from a conversation about initiating a cooperative effort between rice farmers and birders to highlight the value of rice fields to the wintering population of Yellow Rails.  At the conclusion of the morning session we adjourned to a rural location where we divided into two groups, each going to a different farm where combines were harvesting rice.  At each farm two of us at a time got to ride in a combine which was harvesting the second cutting of rice.  The combine flushed rails ahead of it, the rail show including King, Virginia, Sora, and Yellow.  Yes we got Yellow Rails.  I saw eight of them, four viewing from the combine and four from land while watching the combine move through the rice.  It certainly was a worthwhile venture and adventure to come to this festival to add Yellow Rail to my year's list #713.  Overhead there were thousands of geese (Canada, Greater White-fronted, Snow, Ross's), ibis (White,White-faced), and grackles (Boat-tailed, Great-tailed).  Other birds flushed by the combine included sparrows (Song, Savannah, Swamp), American Pipit, and Wilson Snipe.  On the way back to the motel we stopped by a place John and I had visited in January and flushed a Sprague's Pipit.  In the evening after dinner (gumbo, fried pickles), we attended a festival event at a museum which held the contents of an old general store.  We were served sweet dough pie a la mode.  Neither David nor I won a door prize.  Better luck tomorrow.