Flight of the woodcocks
Apr. 4th, 2004 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoWe went at dusk yesterday to a friend's place where we hoped to see and hear woodcocks performing their courting rituals. Susan has about 50 acres of land she has put into conservation trust, and told us she had been hearing the birds in the evening near an old orchard there.
It was very windy when we arrived, and we were afraid that might keep the birds from flying. But we walked down into the orchard anyway. The pink and red of sunset was fading and the almost full moon was bright when we first began hearing the peculiar buzzing "beep" call of the male woodcocks. There were two or three individuals calling. About when we figured it was too dark to see anything, they began to compete in their flights.
The male woodcock calls at shorter and shorter intervals until he works himself into a sort of frenzy, beating his wings so they make a whistling-riffling sound. Finally he launches at a steep angle and climbs to 50 or 100 feet above the ground before making a spiraling descent. Once he lands, the whole thing begins over again.
We saw the birds at the peak of their spirals against the still somewhat lighted sky. But what was most interesting was the sounds their wings make, an indescribable whistling that is quite different on descent from what it sounds like on ascent. A sort of "thwip-thwip-thwip" noise that I might associate with dragon flight rather than any bird.
I'm not a serious birdwatcher. But I first read about the woodcock in Edwin Way Teale's book "A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm" and have always wanted to observe this. Now that I've seen and heard it, I urge others who can do so to find the experience too.
--Tivo
It was very windy when we arrived, and we were afraid that might keep the birds from flying. But we walked down into the orchard anyway. The pink and red of sunset was fading and the almost full moon was bright when we first began hearing the peculiar buzzing "beep" call of the male woodcocks. There were two or three individuals calling. About when we figured it was too dark to see anything, they began to compete in their flights.
The male woodcock calls at shorter and shorter intervals until he works himself into a sort of frenzy, beating his wings so they make a whistling-riffling sound. Finally he launches at a steep angle and climbs to 50 or 100 feet above the ground before making a spiraling descent. Once he lands, the whole thing begins over again.
We saw the birds at the peak of their spirals against the still somewhat lighted sky. But what was most interesting was the sounds their wings make, an indescribable whistling that is quite different on descent from what it sounds like on ascent. A sort of "thwip-thwip-thwip" noise that I might associate with dragon flight rather than any bird.
I'm not a serious birdwatcher. But I first read about the woodcock in Edwin Way Teale's book "A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm" and have always wanted to observe this. Now that I've seen and heard it, I urge others who can do so to find the experience too.
--Tivo
