The Stealthy Clapper Rail

The California Clapper Rail is found primarily in a few California marshlands. They are normally very difficult to spot among the pickle-weed and other marshland plants but extremely high winter tides forces them to higher ground where they're easier to see. While moving through and under the marshland vegetation, the transparent nictitating membrane over their eyes (visible in image #3) protect the eyes from damage while allowing the rails to continue to see properly.

Ron

Hunkered down in the pickle-weed

You did great with these Ron, great detail. They look a lot like ours here(SC). Ours are extremely skittish and stay under thick cover 90% of the time.

NH

Those are some nice shots of a bird I haven't seen.. Were you at Bolsa Chica or some other wetlands?

Another great-looking bird I haven't seen. Very nice exposures, detail, and colors, on all of these. Thanks for sharing them.
...tom

Excellent shots. You did great on these.

Nighthound wrote in post #4572997
You did great with these Ron, great detail. They look a lot like ours here(SC). Ours are extremely skittish and stay under thick cover 90% of the time.
NH

Thanks, Steve. Ours are pretty skittish as well. They're very good at staying out of sight. Only slightly less so when there's an extremely high tide

joayne wrote in post #4573021
Those are some nice shots of a bird I haven't seen.. Were you at Bolsa Chica or some other wetlands?

Thank you, joayne. These were actually taken at the Palo Alto Baylands in San Francisco Bay. There are more images and information about the rail and the baylands at my web site: http://www.pbase.com/r​fredrick/clapper_rail
I've not been to Bolsa Chica but after seeing bird photos taken there, it's on my list.

tom ryan wrote in post #4573050
Another great-looking bird I haven't seen. Very nice exposures, detail, and colors, on all of these. Thanks for sharing them.
...tom

Thanks for the nice comment, Tom. Glad you enjoyed them.

Sindri Skulason wrote in post #4573456
Excellent shots. You did great on these.

Thanks, Sindri. I'd love to get the wonderful low angle you got on your "Golden Plovers" images recently. But given the habitat of the rails, that won't be happening soon.

Thanks to you all for taking the time to comment.

Ron

Wow, not an easy species to get out in the open (any Rail for that matter). Good job given the strong light you had to deal with.