While out walking the dog recently she has flushed several doodle birds. They're common around here because of the remnant alder and willow thickets in the lowlands and younger reforested uplands. Nevertheless, outside of the local situation this curious bird is becoming less common every year.
The American woodcock - Scolopax minor - also known as the timberdoodle - is a ground-dwelling shoreland bird species found in young forest and shrublands. Woodcock breed across eastern North America with Wisconsin part of its western range. This migratory bird winters in lowlands from the Mid-Atlantic south to the Gulf Coast states.
Historically, woodcock were found in much
larger numbers. This was a consequence
of a landscape that included larger amounts of early successional habitat - the technical nomenclature for younger
forest. Not surprisingly those younger
forest have evolved and grown to mature forest where woodcock do not live. Fire
is suppressed and logging is in decline so the extent of younger woodland habitat continues to shrink. Urban development also destroys former
habitat and because of all of these factors the woodcock population has fallen
by about 1 percent each year since the 1960s.
Aldo Leopold’s - A Sand County Almanac - describes the courtship display
of the male Woodcock. This is one of the
true harbingers of spring around here and a delight to observe before
sun-up. From the chapter titled Sky
Dance in this excerpt.
I'm tickled to listen to the courtship ritual. It is another sure sign of the arrival of spring.
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