I drove down to Dead Creek early this morning - and it was well worth  
the effort! The best sights:

first one, then two adult Virginia Rails - then two, then five, then  
six fuzzy, black, no-tail young (showing quite a considerable size  
range) - I watched the whole family for almost an hour. Then,  
foolishly, I decided to run back to my car for my camera - and never  
saw any of the birds again.

If you want to find the rails, drive into the access road. Note the  
first little cluster of tall trees on the left. Stop halfway between  
this and the next clump of tall trees (also on the left). The Rails  
were in the cattail "island" not far from the road. They came out  
first to feed in the area between the road and the left-hand part of  
the island, and then spent a lot of time directly to the right of the  
island, in among lily leaves. I'd recommend getting there as early in  
the morning as possible (or maybe at dusk).

Yellow Warbler frantically searching for food to feed her one baby: a  
loud, demanding Cowbird chick!

3 Osprey overhead at once

an adult Bald Eagle on the dead tree that's in the water by the  
farthest parking lot

2 Thrashers together - I've seen more of this species this year than  
ever before.

15 (!) Great Blue Herons counted on a quick drive from Route 17 to  
the Brilyea Bridge at just after 8AM - only 6 seen an hour later

2 small, short-tailed, bobbing sandpipers feeding with adult Spotted  
Sandpipers - I'm assuming they were young ones, but I've never seen  
the young of this species before.

Here's the whole list:

Number of species:     44

Canada Goose     20
Wood Duck     4
Mallard     1
Great Blue Heron     15
Osprey     3
Bald Eagle     1
Red-tailed Hawk     2
Virginia Rail     8
Sora     1 - heard "neighing" from the same island where the rails were
Killdeer     6
Spotted Sandpiper     7
Least Sandpiper     13
Ring-billed Gull     X
Caspian Tern     4
Mourning Dove     X
Belted Kingfisher     1
Downy Woodpecker     1
Pileated Woodpecker     1
Alder Flycatcher     X
Willow Flycatcher     X
Eastern Kingbird     X
Blue Jay     X
American Crow     X
Northern Rough-winged Swallow     X
Tree Swallow     X
Barn Swallow     X
Marsh Wren     X
Wood Thrush     1
American Robin     X
Gray Catbird     X
Brown Thrasher     2
European Starling     X
Cedar Waxwing     X
Yellow Warbler     1
Common Yellowthroat     X
Savannah Sparrow     X
Song Sparrow     X
Northern Cardinal     2
Indigo Bunting     1
Red-winged Blackbird     X
Common Grackle     X
Brown-headed Cowbird     1
American Goldfinch     X
House Sparrow     X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)