Sora Rail, Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson AZ.

We had limited time this morning before show hours at the Southeast Arizona Birding Festival, so we went to Sweetwater Wetlands, perhaps the best known sewage treatment plant in America. In winter the old settlement ponds, now converted to a birding destination,  attract a host of waterfowl and wintering passerines that you would otherwise be hard pressed to find here in the desert Southwest. In summer…not so much…but it is still good for nesting waterfowl, rails and the normal Desert nesters. Today the birding was slow. We did hear a few Soras on our way around the levie trails,  but it was not until the third pass by the main observation deck that this one flew across my view while watching an immature Black-crowned Night Heron way across the pond,  and landed at the edge of the reeds. Instead of scuttling back in deep, usual behavior for rails, this Sora spent a good 15 minutes in plain view. 

Sony RX10iii at 1200mm equivalent field of view. (In-camera crop to 5mp.) 1/640th @ f4 @ ISO 100. Processed in PhotoShop Express on my Android tablet.