Sky Dance

In his classic:  A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold called the courtship display of the male American woodcock the “sky dance.”  

Knowing the place and the hour, you seat yourself under a bush to the east of the dance floor and wait, watching against the sunset for the woodcock’s arrival. He flies in low from some neighboring thicket, alights on the bare moss, and at once begins the overture: a series of queer throaty peents spaced about two seconds apart, and sounding much like the summer call of the nighthawk.             

Suddenly the peenting ceases and the bird flutters skyward in a series of wide spirals, emitting a musical twitter. Up and up he goes, the spirals steeper and smaller, the twittering louder and louder, until the performer is only a speck in the sky. Then, without warning, he tumbles like a crippled plane, giving voice in a soft liquid warble that a March bluebird might envy. At a few feet from the ground he levels off and returns to his peenting ground, usually to the exact spot where the performance began, and there resumes his peenting.    

– Aldo Leopold              

Meet Scolopax minor – The American Woodcock – colloquially known as the timberdoodle.   Superbly camouflaged this chunky bird - unlike its shore-dwelling relatives - spends much of its life on the forest floor probing with its long bill for insects and earthworms.    

A woodcock’s eyes are positioned high and near the back of their skull. A unique adaptation that allows them to keep watch for danger in the sky while they have their heads down poking around in the soil for food.  This diminutive bird's coloration also makes it difficult to find except during flight at dawn or dusk or when the dogs flush one.  On occasion when you are innocuously walking to or from a deer stand in the dark - with no advance warning - the sudden explosion in the darkness that originates from the immediate vicinity of your feet will most certainly have come from a doodle bird.  After the championship adrenaline rush has ebbed you resume your walk. Tiptoeing gingerly.  But I digress.  

Witnessing woodcock display is truthfully more a patient exercise in listening rather than seeing.  As the sky begins to darken or the dawn begins to glow if you are attentive this time of year you will hear the nasal BZEEP.           

The male will perform his plaintive beeping call on the ground followed by launching into a spiraling flight of 200 to 300 feet.  Like a barnstorming acrobat he then tips into a twisting descent.   The air rushing thru specialized wing feathers whistles to the accompaniment of bubbling vocalizations.   

photo - Thomas Gaertner

Upon landing the male fans his tail much like a gobbler or ruffed grouse with the hopes that his dance has attracted a lady charmed by his advances.  In case you care to know - the boys are promiscuous and will mate with any and all females attracted to their affections.
      

Woodcock displays can last for several hours between dusk and dawn from early-March through early May.  The following video was taken early yesterday morning in the rain.  Turn-up the volume and listen carefully for the peents followed by twittering flight.  Can you identify the other birds calling in the background?        

Spring has officially sprung....