Pennsylvania Game News - March 2021 - 62

Pennsylvania, according to Gerald
McWilliams and Daniel Brauning in
The Birds of Pennsylvania.
February continued to be warmer
than usual, and we recorded other early
arrivals, such as robins, bluebirds,
field sparrows, towhees and turkey
vultures. But we neither saw nor heard
any more woodcocks until March 18,
when Mark spotted one in First Field
at dawn. The following day, Dave
encountered a woodcock on First
Field Trail next to the exclosure, and
that evening he heard several others.
I had been going outside every
evening for several days to listen for
woodcocks, but hadn't heard any.
On March 20, at 7:40 p.m., though, I
finally scored. I could not believe the
amount of twittering and peenting I
heard, although by then it was too dark
to see them spiraling high into the sky
on their twittering wings and then
plunging back to earth as they chirped,
then resumed peenting.
The next morning at dawn, Mark
counted at least six woodcocks singing
in First Field. I couldn't get outside
until 9 o'clock, but I was determined
to see the woodcock Dave had flushed
near the exclosure.
The trail was wet, but ahead of me,
about 40 feet from the fence, I saw it.
I froze, and it stopped, too. Instead of
flying, it turned its head to look at me and
bobbed up and down. It even allowed me
to raise my binoculars so I could study
it more closely - its large, black eyes set
high on its head for rearview binocular
vision, its extremely long, thin, black
bill, and its chunky, mottled gray-andbrown body that blended into the leaf
duff. It didn't move and neither did I in
62

what was a magical moment.
That had been the longest, closest
look I'd ever had of what ornithologist
Arthur Cleveland Bent called " this
mysterious hermit of the alders, this
recluse of the boggy thickets, this
wood nymph of crepuscular habits. "
Usually, they fly before I spot them,
but this one seemed almost tame.
Since woodcocks often return to
the same breeding grounds every year,
maybe it was the same one I'd seen
along this wet trail other springs, and
maybe it was a female. Even though
females have slightly heavier bodies
than males - 7.6 ounces to males' 6.2
- and their bills are slightly longer,
they look the same as males.
And the habitat for nesting was
ideal - young upland woods near
water and not too far from the males'
singing field. Males mate with
multiple females, and females often
visit four or more singing grounds
before nesting.
In the dawn fog, five days later,
as I hung out birdfeeders, I heard a
woodcock peenting in the flat between
the forest and the slope below our
house. A second one joined in. I never
did hear them fly, but I listened to
dozens of peents before it was light
enough to end their singing for the
day.
The next morning, Mark found a
dead woodcock, with two blood spots
on its bill, on Butterfly Loop in First
Field. Although woodcocks are rarely
aggressive, males sometimes chase
each other above their singing grounds,
including performing elaborate steep
ascents with two birds 39 to 68 inches
apart, both making cackling calls.
Pennsylvania Game News - March 2021

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