Date: 5/17/25 4:36 am From: Timothy Barksdale <timothy.barksdale...> Subject: Yellow Rails and marshes
HI Bob, As you already know, rails are secretive, we humans don't tend to enjoy being out in marshes at night (for many reasons), and thus we have limited and incomplete knowledge of the precise nature of the habits of many rails. That being said, I have quite a bit of experience with Yellow Rails, so I will offer you my two cents..
This is quite late for Yellow Rails in Missouri. Migration begins in mid March. By early May, they tend to be gone. The first week of April seems to be a peak, or a short plateau extending to mid or even the last week of April, and although there are records after that they drop off rather quickly. Yellow rails are strong fliers and nocturnal migrants. They are known for extreme secretiveness while occasionally being flushed in daylight.
I've spent a lot of time at night in marshes in Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota- their breeding range, me not being very smart, and by this time early to mid May, they are in full breeding mode. At that latitude, by early June they enter a silent period. I've always felt that correlated with the end of the first nesting cycle. In Churchill, MB- they are still actively calling in early June.
Meanwhile, there are no known breeding records down here in Missouri.
Several similar calls are made by Western Chorus Frog, while Yellow Rail has a very deliberate rhythm to the breeding calls. The timing of evening calling seems to be inconsistent too. Some nights they do not call at all until nearly dawn, then they let loose! At one marsh in west central North Dakota, there were NO calls all night. Then, about nautical twilight, over 10 Yellow Rails suddenly began to call from various parts of the marsh along with 2 Virginias - just to rub it in...
I recommend 100% DEET, however, my intuition tells me it likely causes cancer after it began to melt one of my pairs of binoculars !!
Best to you and keep up the good birding.
Tim Barksdale
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