Pennsylvania Game News - March 2021 - 63

I didn't see or hear any more
woodcocks until May 9 on
International Migratory Bird Day. By
then, we were caught up in migratory
songbirds, and I was out by 8:45
a.m. to count birds. I started up First
Field Trail and immediately flushed
what I assumed were two female
woodcocks - male woodcocks give
no parental care. And hens sometimes
share feeding grounds. One female
performed her broken-wing act, while
at least three half-grown fledglings
ran in all directions with the second
female. I walked on quickly to avoid
further disturbance.
American woodcocks are shorebird
species that prefer to nest in a wet,
woodland habitat. In Pennsylvania,
they are probably the earliest migrant
species to breed in most places.
Because of their unusual appearance
and behavior, they have numerous
nicknames - night partridge, mudbat,
bog sucker and big-eye. They live
throughout eastern North America
from southern Canada to the southern
United States.
Female woodcocks construct their
nests in underbrush or tall weeds along
the edges of woods and often at the
base of a small tree or bush. They make
shallow depressions - 5 inches across
and 1.5 inches deep - in leaf-andtwig litter, lay one to several grayishorange eggs splotched with brown,
violet-gray or blue-gray, and incubate
them 19 to 22 days. Except for brief
periods to eat, mainly earthworms
but also insects, such as beetles, ants,
crickets and grasshoppers, as well as
millipedes, spiders and centipedes,
females sit still on the nest and blend
MARCH 2021

into the brown and beige leaves around
them.
Numerous nest predators include
free-roaming dogs and cats, skunks,
opossums, raccoons, crows and
snakes, but most young survive to live,
on average, 1.8 years, although the
oldest known woodcock was 11 years,
4 months.
Judging from the brief glimpse I
had of the young on May 9, they were
a little less than 2 weeks old and had
been using their flexible upper bills
to probe for earthworms and other
underground food for more than a
week. They can fly short distances
at 2 weeks old. At 4 weeks, they are
almost fully grown, fly well and look
like their parents.
Young can roost at night on shrubs
in old fields by mid-June or July, and
at 6 to 8 weeks old, gradually separate
from their siblings. They migrate
from most of Pennsylvania when the
ground freezes, usually the last week
in October to the second week in
November.
I saw my last woodcock on Nov. 5
when it flushed from the shrubby edge
of the mostly overgrown Far Field, a
half-mile beyond First Field.
Woodcocks appear to be widely
distributed in Pennsylvania, although
the early successional habitat they use
is disappearing as forests age and old
fields are converted into commercial
and housing developments. We long
ago converted our 37-acre hayfield into
a meadow with shrubs and saplings on
all sides, and singing male woodcocks
have been increasing every spring.
But last spring was the first time we
encountered positive proof of breeding
woodcocks. And that is why First Field
Trail now is called Woodcock Trail.
63

Pennsylvania Game News - March 2021

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