the Way of the Turtle

HIGH FLYING WOODCOCKS
1.2 Mile Woodcock Watching Walk in the Pine Bush
Friday, April 8, 2011

I've noticed woodcocks calling at dusk in the spring and summer for a while now and have even seen a few... but I've never seen the male doing his courtship display, which is what the nasally "peent... peent... peent" is part of. So when I saw that the Pine Bush Discovery Center was offering a woodcock-watching program it was a no-brainer to head over there and see the show.

The program started out with a short presentation about woodcocks, where I confirmed a lot I already knew and learned a few new facts (the females nest out in the open relying on excellent camouflage for protection, eggs hatch in about three weeks, and the chicks fledge a little over a week after hatching.) Then we headed outdoors for a short walk through the Pine Bush. Initially the guides concentrated on giving us info about other aspects of the Pine Bush, and we even got to see a motion-triggered camera that's set up along one of the trails for a research project. We listened but didn't hear any woodcocks because it just wasn't dark enough - though there were a lot of robins calling and we could hear the peepers off in the distance.

On the way back we had a lot more success, hearing and then watching a woodcock take off up into the sky until I lost sight of him (some of the others said they could see him as he circled far above us, then dropped almost straight down to start all over again.) A little further along we had one doing his thing only a little ways off the trail; unfortunately at that point it had gotten dark enough that all we could do was listen.

I didn't manage to get any video - the little guys move incredibly fast for such chunky, awkward-looking birds - but I did find the following video on Youtube which shows what we saw and heard:



Definitely a worthwhile trip to the Pine Bush tonight - now that I know what to look for I'll have to try spotting them on my own sometime.

JMH