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My first good look at a Buff-Banded Rail

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Subject: My first good look at a Buff-Banded Rail
From: "Gemfyre" <>
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 21:12:03 +0800
This afternoon I decided to take a wander through Garvey Park and do a spot of birdwatching. Not much unusual around the lakes. Loads of darters on the river. I figured I'd walk along the river to the wetlandy area and try for rails or crakes, figuring I wouldn't have much luck considering the abundance of cyclists/runners/people with dogs on and off the lead. I got to an area with a pond and a large amount of mudflats, expecting but not seeing moorhens or swamphens. I took a look at the footprints in the mud to see what had been by and looked up as a cyclist went by. When I looked at back at the mudflat I saw what I thought was a wader dash out. It seemed to be bobbing so my first thought was Common Sandpiper, but it would have been kinda weird to see ANY wader there. I took a look through my binos and what did I see? A Buff-Banded Rail! Feeding. Not going "Yipe! She saw me!" and hiding a second after I spotted it. I watched it feeding in the mud for a good 5 minutes. They're quite pretty birds once you get to have a good look at them. Eventually it got spooked by someone with a dog passing by but it was delightful to be able to watch it for so long.
 
I copied and pasted that paragraph straight from my Livejournal so the wording's a little wierd.  Anyway, the fact remains that I finally got a really good look at a Buffie.  I just wish I had a decent camera to have taken a photo of it.
 
Belinda (from Perth)

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