Unexpected Encounter with Clapper Rail Family
At Sandy Hook’s Plum Island
July 19, 2014
I usually don’t visit Sandy Hook during the summer months. It’s a magnet for day trippers from a very wide area so there is usually a large number of people enjoying its seaside pleasures. And, of course, there’s the entrance fee which is waived before Memorial Day weekend and after Labor Day.
But on this hot July day in 2014, I decided to walk in, thereby avoiding the fee. Of course, that limited my mobility particularly given that I was using the heavy Sigma 150–500 mm lens that day.
So I parked in Highlands and walked over the bridge across Highlands Reach through which the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers make their way into New York Bay. I had my eyes set on Plum Island opposite Parking Lot B which is readily visible from the bridge.
The place where I encountered the Clapper Rails is almost visible in the photo I took from the bridge. It was in the greenery by the pond at the center of the photo quite close to those three bushes at center left of the picture.
I was walking along the well-trodden path that parallels the edge of the pond. On my left were the waters of the pond while to my right there was greenery, a mix of bushes and small trees. Between me and the water of the pond was an area of marshy greenery. Until that day, I had not thought of that as appropriate habitat for Clapper Rails. Ever since, I’ve always looked for them there!
The first bird I saw was a juvenile Clapper Rail, although I didn’t recognize it as such until I saw the adult and i realized it was shepherding its family of youngsters—there were three of them, although I never got more than one into the frame of my camera. I cannot tell from the photos I took whether all the juveniles are the same bird. These first three photos record the first few moments when I first saw the first of the three juveniles.
Enter the Adult
After a few moments, the adult bird appeared. I assumed it was a female, but I don’t really know that. Unlike the Clapper Rails I see at Forsythe, this bird stood its ground. It clearly recognized that I was a threat to its family of youngsters and faced me down as the three juveniles scurried to safety behind her.
Bear in mind that I had not been looking for these birds. Their presence was a total surprise, and all these words take longer to read than the few seconds that went by as I stood there unmoving taking photos.
I Thought This The End
One of the three juveniles was slower to react to its parent’s attempts to protect them from me—not that I was intending to be threatening. But when it finally followed the adult behind this clump of grass, I was sure this the end of the encounter. There was no way I was going to chase them, so had they continued on their way, I’d have been happy enough with the photos I had so far taken.
But suddenly, the adult reappeared. It had turned around and was making a break for the reeds to my left. To get there, it had to pass by a gap in the reeds about six feet wide. It gave me a very good look at itself, even though it was moving quite quickly. I suspect that the other two juveniles had already gone there without my noticing.
Adult Moves To New Location
I was surprised when the adult Clapper Rail reappeared. It was moving at a swift pace for a Clapper Rail, but they don’t generally hurry; at least adults don’t. But they do move with determination and you have to be really lucky to get a sequence of shots like these that I took in those few moments.
Junior Follows Parent
I wasn’t ready for what happened next. That third juvenile that had followed its parent into the grasses to my right had been left behind. In a panic, it rushed to rejoin its family. That I managed to get the bird into the frame at all was a miracle it was moving so quickly, and I had followed the adult with my camera so I was initially looking in the wrong direction. Because the bird was moving from right to left, I’m showing the photos in that orientation (assuming your screen is wide enough to see all three images).