If you've never seen a woodcock's display flight, you're missing out on one of the delights of early spring. A woodcock is basically a misplaced sandpiper, a shorebird hundreds of miles from the ocean. Somewhere along the evolutionary turnpike, he traded the sunscreen and beach towels for the forest floor, poking his long beak into the soil and pulling up earthworms instead of marine amphipods. But that's not the incredible thing about a woodcock. The male's mating display is both fascinating and comical. It starts on the ground, making a funny "peent" noise every few seconds. Then, it takes off in this crazy circular flight, round and round in big circles rising hundreds of feet in the air, twittering all the time. Finally it reaches its apex and then plummets back to earth erratically, almost like a falling leaf, landing within a few feet of where he started from. And then back to peenting. Rinse and repeat.
We have a woodcock displaying in the field in front of our new house. Amazingly, we've had a woodcock display every spring at the past three places we've lived. Almost like the little bugger has been following us. Even though we can watch the action from home, we headed out on a woodcock walk with Aiden's young birders club this weekend in Concord. Sometimes it's more fun to watch with others. And the woodcocks, a.k.a. timberdoodles, bog suckers, or mud bats, didn't dissappoint. Right at dusk we had at least 5 birds peenting and displaying around us, and we were able to get within 30 feet of where one was peenting from, getting good looks at him with binoculars as the sun set and the stars were starting to shine through. Haley was so happy to just be outside on a warm night without a jacket that she was dancing around like a woodcock herself, entertaining the human flock. Aiden tried really hard to get video of the flight displays, but the light conditions are such that you can barely keep track of the crazy flight path with just your naked eye. But still, "That. Was. Awesome," he said as we got in the car.
The kids and I traveled north to vermont to visit the Kennedys in their new abode for the rest of the weekend. We definitely miss those Kennedys, but their new place is almost amazing enough to just make us glad we'll be able to enjoy visiting them for years to come. They have acres of open fields, panoramic mountain views, barn stalls to raise animals, access to an amazing apple orchard, and a lovely house too. The kids especially loved playing at the "Kennedy farm" with snakes and baby chicks and dead deer skulls...and are already asking to go back. And, thank goodness, they have a woodcock too.
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