Sky Dance

In his classic: A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold characterized the courtship display of the male American woodcock as 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 timber doodle.   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 dog flushes one.  On occasion when you are innocuously walking to or from a turkey blind or 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 adrenaline rush has ebbed you resume your walk. Tiptoeing gingerly.  

 

Witnessing the woodcock courtship 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 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....

Return Of The Timber Doodle

Hardly a day goes by without one or more species of migratory birds arriving or passing thru.  

Last evening I stepped out on the porch to ascertain the state of the night sky before bedtime and there it was - the the distinctive call of the American woodcock. All around me - from at least four different locations - the Timber Doodles were calling.  

According to our records woodcock show-up in Wisconsin around mid-March.  This year we were vacationing in Europe and there was 8-10 inches of snow on the ground so there was nobody to monitor their return.  Some of the birds may merely be migrants passing thru to their breeding grounds north of here.  Others may be arrivals who call this place home  Nevertheless, the peent call of American Woodcock is a sure sign of spring.  If you hear a bird in March it is best to monitor over the course of a week to ascertain if it is a resident or if it has moved on.  Peak display period is early April through mid-May.  What Aldo Leopold described in his essay called Sky Dance.

Timberdoodle

From the Wisconsin DNR trail camera there was this recently......

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.  

Daily Recap

From our walk today we cleaned out 15 nest boxes including several that are going on their 23rd year of service. Built with pride by my two hands three houses ago.  Two additional boxes came home for a workshop rebuild before they’re returned afield.        

We put the seat down on the outdoor shitter. The stump and the hole are filled with water so it is officially a flusher.       

My first deer stand is not fixing itself and if it wasn't for all the green treated lumber would quickly return to the earth.         

And the girls will tell you they love mud season and kicking-up doodle birds.                 

Jill and I logged 2.2 miles - the Labs mileage is anybody’s guess. 

And I may dodge Covid-19 by complying with the quarantine but have likely contracted Hantavirus evicting white footed deer mice from bird boxes.        

Yee haw!

Return of the Timber Doodle

Hardly a day goes by without one or more species of migratory birds arriving or passing thru.  

Monday night I let the dogs out for one last potty call before bedtime and there it was - the the distinctive call of the American woodcock. All around me - from at least four different locations - the Timber Doodles were calling.  

Woodcock show-up in Wisconsin around mid-March.  Some may merely be migrants passing thru to their breeding grounds north of here.  Others may be arrivals who call this place home  Nevertheless, the peent call of American Woodcock is a sure sign of spring.  If you hear a bird in March it is best to monitor over the course of a week to ascertain if it is a resident or if it has moved on.  Peak display period is early April through mid-May.  What Aldo Leopold described in his essay called Sky Dance.

 

A Day In The Life...

...Of A Trail Camera.

Yesterday I uploaded a ginormous number of video vignettes and digital pictures from four trail cameras deployed to their respective woodland locations to keep patient watch on who happens-across their path.

I thought it would be fun to post a representative sampling of photos from one location taken in one day. I've not cropped the date and time stamps from these so you can see for yourself the progression from pre-dawn to daylight and back to night so take note of the time stamp.  For purposes of brevity I selected only one photo from each species.

Here they are: 

A raccoon

 

 

Hen turkey and her brood

 

 

Twin fawns (you can tell them apart as their spots differ)

 

 

 

Mama

 

 

And a doodle bird (American woodcock)

 

click on images for a closer look



This is a particularly fine variety of wildlife passing thru one location in 24 hours.  From the photos you may correctly conclude who general appears nocturnally and during daylight hours.  Although deer show-up at all hours of the day.
 
The fifth camera that had recently been in service to monitor the Baltimore orioles coming to the feeders on the porch has been redeployed to the woods in a previously unmonitored and brand-new location.

Stay tuned...

Timberdoodle

While out last weekend the dogs both flushed several doodle birds.  They're common  around here because of the remnant alder and willow thickets in the lowlands and younger reforested uplands.  Nonetheless, 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 is this excerpt. 



Raising a toast to the Timberdoodle and young forests…..

Timberdoodle

 click on image for a better look

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. This arrangement lets them keep watch for danger in the sky while they have their heads down poking around in the soil for food.  This diminutive bird makes it hard to find except at dawn or dusk or when the dogs flush one.  Or when you flush one while walking to or from a deer stand in the dark.   The sudden explosive flush will almost cause you to have a heart attack.   

They’re migrating now and winging their way south to the gulf coast.  One of the sure harbingers of spring is the male woodcock’s evening display flight.  From his singing ground he gives buzzy peent calls and flies upward in a wide spiral following by a twittering and chirping descent.  Aldo Leopold called this courtship ritual the 'sky dance' in his book - A Sand County Almanac.

Timber Doodle

While Six Deuce was out turkey hunting he had to stretch his legs and answer the call of nature.

He flushed a doodle bird - the North American Woodcock - Scolopax minor.  

Here is the nest.

click on image to enlarge

 
Another reason to keep the dogs close so the ground-nesting birds can propagate successfully.