Baillon's Crakes in Kent

Geoff Burton and Chris Abrams

Grove Ferry 1999 - Geoff Burton

Whilst birding at Grove Ferry in the Stour Valley in East Kent on the morning of Sunday May 20th 1999, I heard an unfamiliar call coming from a dense area of aquatic vegetation. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate its source; was the call was made by a bird or, perhaps, a frog? Later that day, I had a phone call informing me that another birder, Brian Thomas, had heard the call and said that it reminded him of the call of a Baillon's Crake he had heard abroad some years ago. A number of local birders gathered that evening and heard the call. It transpired that several others had heard this strange sound over a period of at least the previous two weeks. Opinion was divided but the majority doubted its avian credentials. None present were familiar with the call of Baillon's Crake but most suspected that the call originated from some kind of frog. One birder had brought a tape recording of a Baillon's Crake , which seemed to suggest that the call was not made by this species.

I did not know what was making the call but I doubted that it was a frog because, although the sound was mechanical, the tones and the inflections varied capriciously and also, within the restricted area it inhabited, it seemed to move around rather a lot. To me, the closest familiar birdcall was that of a drake Garganey but this call was lower in tone. The new Handbook of Bird Identification (Beaman and Madge) states that the call of Baillon's Crake recalls “both Garganey and certain frogs”. Interestingly, it also warned that some “recordings supposedly of this species are in fact frogs!”

So, two days later, I was back at Grove Ferry at six o'clock in the morning. If the call was being made by a frog I would never see it but if it was being made by a bird then there was a chance. Only minutes after arriving at the site, I heard the call again. As I scanned with my binoculars, a very small crake ran across an open area between two clumps of vegetation. In the few seconds it was in view, I noted warm brown upperparts, bluish underparts and that it was “covered” in white spots. It also looked front-heavy, suggesting short wings and tail. I put the news out as a small crake most likely Baillon's! It did not show again before I had to leave for work but later that morning other birders had sustained views confirming the identification.

Oare Marshes 2001 - Chris Abrams 

Finding myself unable to sleep, I decided to go birding on my local patch and I arrived at Oare Marshes at 04.20. The dawn of 26th of June 2001 had brought a still and warm morning. Immediately upon leaving my car, I caught a brief snatch of a familiar croaking call. It reminded me instantly of the Baillon's Crake which I had heard calling two years previously at Grove Ferry. However, the call was brief and insufficient for positive identification. After five minutes I heard the call again. This time the bird repeated it making a series of low clicking noises between more prolonged calls. One particular call it gave had also been very characteristic of the Grove bird and I was quite confident now that a Baillon's Crake was calling. Despite the early hour, I called two local birdwatchers, Geoff Burton and Mike Gould and also alerted Birdline South East. Geoff was the first to arrive and fortunately, after a frustratingly silent ten minutes, the bird began calling again in earnest. Geoff and Mike had both brought video cameras and each managed to obtain a snatch of the call as confirmation of the record. The bird continued to call intermittently throughout the morning but much less frequently as the morning progressed.

Patience eventually rewarded four of us with brief views of the bird. At 09.15, it was seen as it dashed across the mud to a small patch of sedge. After a few minutes the bird showed very briefly close to us. Jack Chantler , Perry Haines and Tony Swandale were fortunate enough to observe some plumage details. They noted rich chestnut upperparts which were heavily spotted with white and very dark flanks and undertail coverts. The bird then flew back across the water to the sedges from which it came, about 20 yards away. Sadly, this was to be my only sighting of the bird. I only obtained a silhouetted flight view of a very small crake with slender wings and dangling legs as it flew away from us.

The bird ceased calling the following morning and despite being extensively listened for, gave no further sign of its presence until early on the morning of 30th when, strangely, it resumed calling in exactly the same spot.

In a strange echo of the Grove Ferry occurrence, it later transpired that a froglike call had been heard in the same location a few days previously but had eventually been dismissed as being a frog. As more birdwatchers become familiar with its call, thanks largely to the Grove Ferry individual and this bird, perhaps the number of records of this attractive species will continue to increase.