Black Rail
Black Rail
Laterallus jamaicensis
Sibley's describes the mouse-like black rail as a "tiny, extremely secretive species as hard to see as mice; very difficult to flush; they never willingly give good views of themselves"

But due to San Francisco, California bay storm flooding I got lucky, when I visited the Palo Alto Baylands today.

Postscript - this picture was recently published in the American Birding Association's North American Birds winter issue. :-)
Focal length: 700 mm fStop: 8 ISO: 100 Shutter Speed: 1/25
Palo Alto, CA - Baylands
Jan 1, 2006
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