He ran a little late so I started out the excursion with a pair of Yellow Warbler singing from across the field in a small wooded area, along with a beautiful Warbling Vireo If I sees you I will squeeze you till you squirt this fast repeated song is such a signature call in the forests around southern Ontario.
After he got here we both hopped the fence and off to the races. The first cell is by far the best this time of year with it being low allowing for a beautiful mudflat. We counted early migrants such a Lesser Yellowlegs and Least Sandpiper bobbing around in the mud and about 20 Killdeer! Moving up towards the cells to the west we saw lots of Red-winged Blackbirds and Spotted Sandpiper everywhere we looked.
The 2 deepest cells are to the far west of the property and are great for migrating waterfowl such a Northern Pintail and Northern Shoveler. Although, today, it was empty except for a few Mallard in the far back. I did my usual scan of the shoreline just in case I seen anything of interest. I seen the normal Spotted Sandpiper, Killdeer scaling the rocks. Then, to the left side about 2/3 the way up the bank I see something.. Virginia Rail? No. Liam points out the bill size being too small. Sora? Nah, looks to big to me. Then, it dawned on the both of us, could this be one of the rarest birds we could ever find here.. Purple Gallinule??
At this point I feel like most people would be questioning that sighting, and of course! Makes 100% sense why that would be questioned. Purple Gallinule are so rare here and even then, this bird would definitely be a juvenile which is even weirder!
I just kept thinking, I can't call it without proof, not a chance. So, camera in hand, I told Liam my plan and started walking the very sketchy rocks on the side of the pond. Liam stayed ashore and directed me to where our mystery bird was. The walk kept getting steeper and steeper. That's when I decided to stop and try for a picture. The bird was still a quite a ways away and the worst part, the brown of the bird blended with the gray-brown rocks.. looks like I'm flipping to manual focus. I scrolled the wheel and took what seemed like 100 pictures (I knew about 97-99% of which were horrible). I got one.. one somewhat IDable photo. Sending it off to 2 Discord groups there was chatter around it and someone else even suggested Purple Gallinule. Now we knew, now we weren't the only ones.
With the bird still unidentified due to the picture in Discord literally being a picture of the rear of my camera, I started to do some editing. Darken this, dehaze that, crop, and voila. Our bird. One that we thought would be a record sighting and possibly my second county first record.. yet, the more I looked the less convinced I was that it was a Gallinule at all, let alone a super rare one. Lacking face "shield" and the bill looked too short. Immediately jumped to my most trusty field guide for weird plumage. Stokes. Hoping they had something in there. I tore through the book frantically trying to ID this bird. Then, I flipped to a page that not only showed my bird, but it was almost in the same posture.
The bird was not a rarity but notable nonetheless. An immature Sora. The first immature Sora I have ever seen as a matter of fact. A bird most birders can go a long time with only hearing these birds so it was a pleasure for sure!
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| This is the ID picture of the Sora. As you can see the small bill and round bodied. |
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| This is a second photo I ended up getting, those stripes on the flanks and sides is the best ID feature for young Sora. |
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