All posts by Cayla Matte

This summer I will be partnering with the WI Department of Natural Resources and the WI Breeding Bird Atlas II to perform call surveys at night for King & Yellow Rails, as well as other marsh bird species including Black Rails, Least Bitterns, Virginia Rails, Soras, among others. My host advisers from the WI DNR are Sumner Matteson and Rich Staffen. My faculty adviser is David Drake, a professor in the Department of Wildlife Ecology. The goal of this project is to revisit the sites of a 2008 field study involving these species to determine their current breeding populations. These are state-level threatened/special concern species because their populations have been drastically decreasing and I hope to use my ornithological research skills to help document my observations for the final year of the WI Breeding Bird Atlas II.

A Few Nights In The Marshes

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It’s always a bittersweet moment when something you worked so intensely at comes to an end. I have since completed my seven-week field season of searching for King and Yellow Rails at 18 various field sites across Wisconsin. I’ve had more crazy experiences happen to me than I ever thought I would with this project, but isn’t that what life’s all about? For as many times as I’ve been scared being solo on the surveys or complained about all the bugs, that is nothing compared to travelling to all these hidden gem locations with the most gorgeous sunsets and meeting talented, genuine individuals that care enough to help me find these rare birds.

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Rails, Trails, and Cattails

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Ahnapee State Trail- Kewaunee, WI

Now that I am halfway through my field season of surveying for rails and bitterns, I can definitely say that this experience has been wild. Pun intended. Traveling across the state in search of elusive King Rails (KIRA), Yellow Rails (YERA), and Least Bitterns (LEBI) has lead to a number of eBird checklists, many long hikes at night, very few observations of my focal species, but some amazing views of nature and sunsets.

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The Quest For Elusive Rails

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Pre-survey scouting @ Kettle Moraine

Project Details:

This summer my research project will be focused on performing call surveys at night for several focal species King , Black, & Yellow Rails as well as Least Bitterns across the state of Wisconsin. I have 18 total field sites with varying numbers of waypoint locations, where I actually perform the surveys between 10 pm-3 am for Yellow Rails and 10pm- 7 am for King/Black Rails. A survey consists of five minutes of passive listening once I reach each waypoint to determine what birds are immediately calling. Then I play 30 seconds of each breeding call then listening 30 more seconds to see if the species responds. If a bird responds, it is considered an observation. Each survey site will be revisited at least after two weeks theoretically to determine if the species are staying in the area to do their breeding. So I will complete a total of 36 field survey visits over a course of seven weeks as my field season is May 21st to July 7th. So far, it has been an interesting ride…

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