arrived about an hour early to my birding location to do a bit of scouting as is my habit before my tour guests were to arrive.
While walking along the path through the salt marsh at Ft.Fisher N.C., I heard a familiar noise coming from the grass. “Keccckk, kecckkk, keccckk”.
A Clapper Rail!
I haven’t seen one of these in years!
Picking up the pace, I jogged over to a pile of brush (possibly an overturned tree) and there, standing nonchalantly right next to the path on a pile of dead grass, was the sweetest juvenile Clapper Rail I’d ever seen.

Now normally these birds high tail it away once their spotted but this little one couldn’t care less that I was 10 feet away.
As I stood there taking these photos, what I presume to be a parent bird called out from a hidden space in the grass nearby. I tried to locate the second bird but it was well concealed.

Clappers are staple bird of the eastern seaboard of the United States, calling home at a distance stretching from New England down to Florida and even reaching into the Texas coast.
You’d think that with such a wide range these handsome brown birds would be seen more often than not, but their sneaky behavior and appearance aid them in avoiding detection.
This bird was one of only a handful that I’ve ever seen in my life and I could not be happier for it 🙂 Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc
on the mighty @canonusa
#5ds