Surprising grassland bird

[Joel Geier]

Hi folks,

Yesterday morning I was out checking on Oregon Vesper Sparrows on a cattle ranch in north Benton County, as part of a monitoring project that Bob Altman has been leading for more than a decade.

While working one mixed-sparrow flock, I saw one of the color-banded male Vesper Sparrows carry a grasshopper down into a small ephemeral stream course that's been dry since May. 

From his bands, I knew that particular male was the parent for a nest with 4 nestlings that fledged 3 weeks ago. At that age the youngsters should be fully capable of flight and almost independent. It's right around that age where we first start to get resights of the banded juveniles. Those are very useful for estimating survival rates for the post-fledging period -- which can be the highest-risk period of the birds' lives, so an important metric for population models. So I walked in hoping to flush the youngster and get a look at its bands.

I did flush a bird that made a short flight, but it was much bigger and darker than a young Vesper Sparrow would be. My first thought was a towhee fledgling, but it seemed to be too big even for that.

Then I saw the bird in between some clumps of grass and rushes ... it was a Virginia Rail. OK, I guess this little ephemeral stream course counts as a "seasonal wetland," but it's been a couple of months since it was even wet enough to be muddy. Certainly not a place where I'd go looking for rails!

Happy late-summer birding,

Joel

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Joel Geier

Tampico Ridge north of Corvallis

[Joel Geier]

Here are some photos of the habitat where I found the rail on Tuesday (in sequence, approaching the little patch of Juncus).

The rail flushed from the Juncus (rushes) and landed under the cluster of small trees/bushes in the background of the last photo.

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From: "David Bailey" <davidcbai...@gmail.com>
To: "Joel Geier" <clear...@peak.org>
Cc: "Mid-Valley Nature" <mid-vall...@googlegroups.com>, "Oregon Birders OnLine" <ob...@freelists.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2025 11:04:14 AM
Subject: Re: [obol] Surprising grassland bird

Wow! Great story. Would you be able to share a photo of the habitat where the rail was? Very interesting.