FLORIDABIRDS-L@LISTS.UFL.EDU
Subject: King Rails (KIRA) YEA! Finally

Hi FL birders:

I visited the Sarasota Celery Fields on Thursday morning (041207) at sunrise. FINALLY I got a very decent look of the King Rails at Sarasota Celery Fields.

I have lived in FL (St. Pete) pushing four years now. I have chased the King Rail at Carillon BP, Babcock-Webb and now the Sarasota Celery Fields. Up until now all I ever got was its voice and/or VERY fleeting glimpse of the beast. Every body says that Carillon is good place to find this beast but I have been there winter, spring and never even heard a peep of a KIRA.

This morning another birder “said there is a King Rail – in plain sight”. I caught a pic of it but I am still learning this photography stuff and at times am not a very quick focus. At another spot in this marsh I kneeled in the Tules (Tule Reeds)
for about a half hour and got pretty good looks at two KIRA. Got home put the images on the computer and was very surprised on how well the pic of the KIRA turned out I was really expecting a DUD. For all the rails I observed here there were several (7 or 8), observed but did not get pix of Virginia Rail (a couple of birds)

Observed a number of things some of which I have listed here.
Blue-winged Teal, Sandhill Crane, Common Moorhen, Sora, Virginia Rail., King Rail, Black-necked Stilt, Greater Yellowlegs, Marsh Wren (voice), Savannah Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow. Eastern Meadowlark (voice) Red-winged Blackbird, Boat-tailed Grackle. The following link is to a pic of the KIRA that I saw this morning: