Well, the title must be sounding strange to many. You will know why shortly, especially if you know how crakes usually behave 😀 .

Crakes are usually super shy birds. They scoot into cover the moment they see any humans. Atleast this has been my experience with them whenever I have seen them. Given this behaviour, getting to see them is not easy. So now imagine going on a birding outing and getting to see three types of them, all which were very cooperative and gave us plenty of time to observe them. Well, that is exactly what I got to experience! Now I hope the title makes sense to you 🙂 .

I got news that a Spotted Crake had been “spotted” earlier in the morning. Now, this was super exciting. It was probably the first sighting of this species in the city. We decided to make a visit to the lake the next morning in a bid to see it. There were already several others besides us. Well, news surely travels fast in the birding community 😀 .

We had an idea of where it had been sighted the previous morning. So we started to make our way there. But as we did, we also carefully scanned the various reed patches along the path. There was already much activity in them; Paddyfield Warblers, Blyth’s Reed Warblers, Clamorous Reed Warblers and Baillon’s Crakes. The “show” by the Baillon’s Crakes just continued. They were everywhere! And not in the least bothered by the presence of humans. Here are some pictures that I took:

We finally reached the patch where the Spotted Crake had been sighted. We kept scanning the reed edges for any bird movement. The first one to make an appearance was a Ruddy-breasted Crake. The previous ones I had seen at a different lake were super shy. But not the ones here. They freely walked around in the open space just outside the reed edge. Once in a while, they seemed to remember that they are a Crake and rush back in 😀 . Here are a few photos of one:

And we finally had the Spotted Crake make its appearance. Strangely, it too came out a number of times to forage. It was however a bit more cautious that than the other two Crakes but not as shy as I had imagined. Here are a few photos of it:

All in all a super outing as far as sighting Crakes were concerned. Could there also be a Little Crake hidden somewhere in these reeds? I am being greedy I think, but no harming in fantasizing, right? 😛 .

Video

Here is a short video I made of the three Crakes: