Black Rail by Barbara Tilton

The alarm goes off at 5a.m. on a cold, wet, rainy Saturday morning, what do you do? Get up and go on a Bird Club field trip to look at birds, what else?

We birded from 7:00-3:00, mostly in the rain from the car, and ended up with 79 species at Anahuac NWR. The absolute highest of highlights was a Black Rail, a Life Bird for the 3 of us who got to see it. For those not familiar with them, they are a small six-inch black bird that really doesn't like to fly much, but instead runs around under the grasses like a rat.

God surely smiled on us as we were in the right place, at the right time and looking in just the right spot. It was brief looks but unmistakable. So happy I didn't turn over & go back to sleep this morning like I really wanted to!