Finding the elusive Yellow Rail

Yellow Rails and Rice Festival 2009 from Jane Patterson on Vimeo.

How do you find a Yellow Rail? One way would be to slog through a muddy field and hope one shows up. A better way is to sit up on a big, honking machine that's harvesting rice and watch for the rails as they are flushed by the combine. We got to do the latter last weekend at the first Yellow Rails & Rice Festival in Jeff Davis parish in southwest Louisiana. And the best part was...we actually got to see a Yellow Rail! An elusive bird at best -- this is one of the best ways to actually get to see one