A few snaps from the vicinity of Broome St

A few days ago I was told of a sighting of Lewin's Rail.  As this was about the 5th sighting of the species in the area I thought it worth a twitch.  As it was a flat 300m walk I reckoned I could make it there.

On my first visit (30 July) I thought I had one brief glimpse of the Rail, and couple of possible calls, but not enough to claim the bird.  On 31 July I tried again and got a clear enough view to make the claim, but no photo.  What follows is of my visit on 1 August where I staked the site out for an hour.

I parked at Fisheries Jetty and walked along the boardwalk to the end of the scrub, where I erected my folding chair.

This is the area of interest.  On each visit the bird has bolted across the area of very shallow water.  On one occasion it went from L to R and on the other it went from L to R.  The vegetation on the right is very dense an there is no chance of seeing the bird once it is in there.  I suspect that sometimes when the bird crosses to the left it goes through the very thin layer of bush and into a very heavily overgrown grassy swamp.  Again it will never be seen  if it stays at ground level.

On 1 August it decided to tease me bolting across the water in either direction about ever 15 minutes.  My guess it was generally in view for less than 2 seconds (and covering 3 metres in 2 seconds implies a speed of about 6 kph which is quite feasible).  That is very much of an ask to get a photo: get the camera out of hibernation; zoom in to the area; shutter lag; incompetence.

The local Scrubwrens were more cooperative.  

I hoped that their presence might persuade the Rail it was safe to stop for a pose in the middle.  After an hour that was almost the case.  I think this indicates enough to support my sighting,

That is very far from my worst effort at photographing a bird.  When we lived in New York I went for a prowl in Central Park one day and another, camera-free, bird had identified an Ashy-throated Flycatcher which would be a first for the Park.  It was a very active and my camera was not cooperating so the other bloke to off to bring an expert from the mob about 300m away watching the famous Red-tailed Hawks on 5th Avenue.  Needless to say the bird was well gone by the time they returned.  I had taken a couple of snaps but all they showed was a gray (noting the location) blur.  NYC Audubon were reluctant that they could not accept the sighting.  That was my worst effort.

2 weeks later a specimen of the species was seen and acceptably photographed some 200km North, become the first record in the Great State of Connecticut.