Rails in the same Prospect year.

I did research of the rail species records for Prospect to check how many times in one year two different species rails were seen in the same year in Prospect Park. Showing how rare we get these birds in Prospect in any year, the occurrence in the same year in the last century only happened.....TWO times. [WOW}

This fall/ year's Virginia Rail and Sora rail combo only three days apart hit the Coney Island bell ringer

, setting history as the shortest followup appearance of any two rails in Prospect. Only three rail species  were ever recorded in Prospect : Virginia, Sora and Clapper Rail.

The previous closest appearance followed by a second rail species was in 1939 !

On Sept 23rd, 1939 a Virginia Rail was reported.
Then one month later on October 19th , 1939, Prospect's first appearance of a Clapper Rail hit the books, a bird that stayed till November 2nd, 1939

The next closest gap didn't happened until 59 years later when in spring of 1998, on May 3rd, a Virginia Rail  was followed in the fall 1998 , a Sora Rail seen on September 28.

It makes this year's Virginia Rail /Sora combo a very special and historical event indeed. Good birding by Kathy and Klemens and for Prospect as well.

--KB