About

Earl Aagaard’s opinions about everything that interests him. Og also enjoys gardening, travel, reading, woodbutchery, and lots of other stuff.

Monthly Archives

Join Og's Mailing List

OgBlog.net

HAVE YOU SEEN (and heard) THE COURTSHIP FLIGHT OF THE WOODCOCK?

Neither had I until last Saturday night!

They aren’t everywhere, but you can check the RANGE MAPS to see if there’s a chance of seeing them near where you live.

We (about 30 of us) lined up in a mowed old field, facing the “hedgerow” where the birds sheltered. Then we listened for the male’s call (which you can hear at THIS SITE). It’s not very impressive, is it? But, after he calls for a while - considerably less than 20 times here in TN - he takes flight in a giant circle, making an entirely different sound (the courtship song) on his way up, up, up…...

Since this happens at dusk, we could only see the first couple of flights without lights. After that, one or more of the six or eight powerful torches in the group were on the flying bird. On most of the flights, he managed to escape the beams of the torches and we lost sight of the small dot so high above us. But for two flights, I was able to follow him through my binoculars, all the way up, and then back down. During the descent, he produces a musical whistling with some of his feathers modified for sound production.

The field was really rough, and the crowd was pretty big, so we got only one glimpse of the bird on the ground - he was almost always behind something, and he kept moving away from us whenever he landed - but it was a thrilling evening.

The birds are losing habitat as man, the fiercest competitor, expands his range. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is doing CONSERVATION WORK on the Timberdoodle.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/27 at 12:12 PM

Comments and reactions