{"id":10,"date":"2011-04-28T00:48:52","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T07:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.windemuths.com\/?p=10"},"modified":"2011-10-27T07:16:10","modified_gmt":"2011-10-27T14:16:10","slug":"virginia-rail-and-the-sora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.windemuths.com\/?p=10","title":{"rendered":"The Virginia Rail and Sora"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Virginia Rail<\/p><\/div>\n

Now is your chance, or at least the best chance you\u2019ll get, to see two of the more elusive
\nbirds at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Both of these birds–the Virginia Rail
\nand the Sora–are members of the Rail family. As mating season begins, many birds
\nbecome more conspicuous and the rails are no exception. Just a couple of days ago as
\nI travelled slowly along \u201cRail Ally\u201d on the auto tour route, an area between marker #3
\nand #4, I was able to see at least one Sora running along the edge of the cattails and at
\nleast three to four Virginia Rails. While unheard of at other times of the year, this is not
\nuncommon during the spring of the year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sora<\/p><\/div>\n

Even though of the same family, the diet of the Virginia Rail and the Sora differ in that
\nthe Sora feeds mostly on seeds while the Virginia Rail feeds mostly on insects, crayfish,
\nand snails. The nests of both species are built similarly, a few inches above water or on
\na dry area, made up of cattails, reeds and grasses usually with living plants forming a
\ncanopy over it. The Virginia Rail has from 5-13 eggs and these are incubated by both
\nparents. The Sora can have from 6 up to 18 eggs with the parents also taking turns
\nincubating the eggs.<\/p>\n

Both the Virginia Rail and the Sora can be migratory birds, sometimes flying all the way
\nto Central America. We are fortunate at Ridgefield in that there is a population of both
\nbirds that winter over at the Refuge.<\/p>\n

Some of the other interesting and unusual birds that have been seen over the last month
\nare American White Pelican, Cooper\u2019s & Sharp-shinned Hawks, Peregrine Falcon,
\nGolden Eagle, Dunlin, Lesser Yellowlegs, Least Sandpiper, Band-tailed Pigeon, Short-
\neared Owl, Barn Owl, Anna\u2019s Hummingbird, Pileated Woodpecker, Black Phoebe (rare),
\nSay\u2019s Phoebe (also rare), Northern Shrike, Hutton\u2019s Vireo, and Cliff Swallow. An
\ninteresting side note is that the Black Phoebes, who have wintered here, are building a
\nnest on the refuge. This will be the first reported Black Phoebe nest built in Washington
\nstate.<\/p>\n

Why don\u2019t you make it a point to come out to the refuge this month and perhaps you will
\nalso be able to spot one of the Rails either along \u201cRail Ally\u201d or at other marshy areas in
\nthe refuge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now is your chance, or at least the best chance you\u2019ll get, to see two of the more elusive birds at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Both of these birds–the Virginia Rail and the Sora–are members of the Rail family. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,22,25,27,26,18,17,19,6,5,20],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ramblings","tag-birds","tag-blog","tag-nesting","tag-rails","tag-ramblings-2","tag-refuge","tag-ridgefield-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-river-s","tag-sora","tag-virginia-rail","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.windemuths.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.windemuths.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.windemuths.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.windemuths.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.windemuths.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.windemuths.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47,"href":"https:\/\/blog.windemuths.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.windemuths.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.windemuths.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.windemuths.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}