The Clapper Rail, known for its distinctive clapping-like call, is an elusive marsh bird, about the size of a chicken. They tend to hide in the dense marsh grasses but the light was perfect early yesterday when we found the first Clapper Rail of the morning at Stono River County Park in Charleston, SC. The park’s boardwalk spans the grassy marshlands where we heard the harsh loud calls of Clapper Rails on either side of the boardwalk. When this Rail stepped from the shadows into the light, the busy grasses all but disappeared in the background.