Thank you for sharing this!

I love that this giant machine gets to have she/her pronouns! Flashback to when I was reading Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site on a regular basis and had to regender half the trucks because come on. (The sequel was much better about that.) Anyways, fun song!

I think this might be it! Feels right for the beak shape and the feet (and the Merlin photo ID I just learned about thought so from one of the photos). Thank you! Yay!

Hmm, I looked at this for awhile and I like some things about it but the clapper rail might be a little neckier, and maybe too big? This is fun, though, I'd never even heard of rails and now I'm learning about this whole new-to-me category of birds!

But I did find the photo ID function in Merlin, which I had never realized was there before, and one of my photos it thought might be a sora, which I see someone here also thinks, so, maybe!

I tried aiming Seek at it while I was there and Seek was like "Frog?" and I was like "ooh is there a frog??" but I never did spot any frogs. I really like Seek for plants and bugs I can get close up with but anything at a distance I think it just can't see that well.

Huh! That's neat about gingkos.

So fingers crossed someone may actually be able to catch it and help it?? Or at least give it a more peaceful ending than a drawn-out death in my bushes?

Update: I have a wildlife rehabber trying to organize a placement for it, and I guess the state wildlife people are more interested in talking to her, who presumably knows what she's talking about, than me, Terrified Clueless Homeowner.

I had those too when I was little and never minded them! Much better approach.