Crex Crex

Crex Crex in Latin, or Corn Crake in English, or Kwartelkoning in Dutch, was a species I encountered again yesterday evening. The last time I had heard (and seen!) them was two years ago, and since this calling bird was only heard ten miles away from home we decided to give it a try. The problem was that we had to be back again on a decent time (because of my testweek). And as a lot of you might know: Corn Crakes often start calling from dusk onwards. Nevertheless, we gave it a try.We arrived near the Ossenwaard at 19.45 and started to walk down the path into the Ossenwaard. After a few minutes of walking I suddenly heard ''crex crex'' among all the noise coming from Marsh Warblers, Whitethroats, Reed Warblers, Yellow wagtails etc. That was nice! Did not expect the bird to be calling at 19.50 already! I was satisfied already but we walked a little closer, and now we could hear the bird calling closeby (5-10 metres away). It paused several times. After a quarter of one hour we walked on and came across a family of Whitethroats, Linnets and a pair of Sandpipers (breeding-suspects!!). Someone sighted a Spoonbill the other day but we were unable to find it.
My father made a good recording of the Corn Crake, which I'll add later.

The calling Corn Crake of yesterday

As said above, I have seen Corn Crakes before. This was two years ago. It was during a ringing session of Corn Crakes in the evening where they got transmittors on their backs so that the researchers would be able to follow the Corn Crakes by day. And that they'd find out what the territory range of male Corn Crakes are.
I could also add it to my ''birds in the hand-list''.