Blogs by Patricia Hilliard
Clapping for Clapper Rails
7/11/2020 12:59:22 PM
Bird watchers watch as a bird's population grows larger and larger.
A few years ago we were excited to see one Clapper Rail in the marsh. These rails are shorebirds that are seen most often in salt marshes. To see them in our "neck of the woods" you had to walk a long trail that extends to a big green bridge over the marsh. This bridge offers a fantastic viewing point. I captured the first photo of the rail that confirmed its existence and posted it in ebird, the big global data base. Because of this post, more and more bird watchers started coming to the marsh to see the Clapper Rails.
Since then, every year, the Clapper Rail population has increased by a few birds. Some years we were lucky enough to see the chicks. They were little black fluffy balls of feathers scurrying over the mud flat during low tide. Their diet is mostly worms and bugs found in the marsh. They were eating well.
These days, we stand on the bridge and listen to the Clapper Rails calling to each other. By the multitude of clapping calls that they make, we suspect there may be as many as 40 birds in the marsh. Every time we hear them, we clap our hands and cheer them on! Their population is exploding!
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More Blogs by Patricia Hilliard
• Snowy Weekend - Monday, January 26, 2026
• Water Everywhere and Not A Drop to Drink - Friday, November 15, 2024
• The Writing Life - Sunday, August 18, 2024
• The Sad History of Nature in Our Town - Tuesday, July 16, 2024
• After 200 years, Bald Eagles appear. - Thursday, April 6, 2023
• Bird Seedy - Wednesday, March 9, 2022
• Dehumanized Humans and Wildlife - Sunday, June 20, 2021
• Discrimination in the World of Bird Watching - Friday, June 11, 2021
• Big Day Bird Count 2021 - Monday, May 10, 2021
• Plant a Pollinator Garden - Sunday, February 28, 2021
• Bird Watching during the Covid-19 Pandemic. - Friday, February 5, 2021
• Clapping for Clapper Rails - Saturday, July 11, 2020
• Beginners and Enders - Monday, November 18, 2019
• Change is the only Constant - Saturday, July 6, 2019
• Sports and Global Warming - Thursday, May 9, 2019
• A Realistic Rodent - Thursday, March 28, 2019
• Bald Eagles Again - Monday, February 18, 2019
• Birds and Words - Thursday, December 20, 2018
• Big Day Bird Walks - Saturday, October 6, 2018
• Nature Therapy--It Works! - Sunday, May 27, 2018
• 2017 A Better Year than Expected - Monday, December 11, 2017
• What the Warbler Migration has Taught Me - Monday, November 27, 2017
• Irony: How a loss of habitat occurs and why. - Tuesday, July 11, 2017
• Bald Eagles Return - Monday, May 8, 2017
• King Rail in Bayonne NJ - Thursday, August 21, 2014
• Snowy Owl Olympics in New Jersey, USA - Saturday, February 15, 2014
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