American Woodcock revisited

Last night at 7:40 PM (I timed it) male Woodcocks came out to their staging grounds to woo the local females. From where I stood I heard four males singing, sounding more like insects or frogs than birds. In the gloaming darkness I could make out one of the birds on a path of short weeds turning slowly in all four directions while vocalizing. He then suddenly rose straight up, too high for me to see, filling the air with the sounds his wings were making during the circular ascent, followed by chirping as he descended.

I wasn't able to get any photos, but I thought I repost the ones I took last year.

I had managed to get a recording of the song. 

When you listen carefully you'll hear the following sequence: the thin nasal  buzzy "peent" call preceded by a barely audible "tuko" sound, the twittering made by the wings during sharp turns, and the vocal chirping during aerial flight which becomes louder as the bird descends. The last part of the descent is silent. Then a soft fluttering of the wings as the bird lands.

Here is a snippet of the spectrogram. and wave pattern.

It was raining yesterday, a soft spring rain. During the course of the day I had a migrating flock of Juncos drop in for a visit foraging in the yard. Song Sparrows were scratching underneath the feeder for dropped seeds. A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker landed briefly on a tree by the stonewall. The field next to it was studded with Robins hopping and listening. I listened to the buzzy song of an Eastern Phoebe. A Carolina Wren sang loudly from high up in a tree somewhere  In the evening I heard the first Spring Peepers in the wetland next to the house. Spring is surely here. Time to get the hummingbird feeders ready...


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Snow Geese in a Snow Storm. Winter's Last Gasp?

I thought winter had finally moved on. Most of the snow had melted and I had watched Robins forage on the bare ground and listened to the first Song Sparrows. On the two previous  evenings a Woodcock had sounded his peenting call late into the night.

This morning I decided to take my dog to the West River Trail and check out the Snow Geese that had been reported on the large stubble field next to the river. The sky was overcast. Just as I got into the car the first snow flakes landed on the windshield. I drove off anyway. When I arrived the flakes were coming down more heavily. Still I could see the Snow Geese, along with some Canada Geese,  foraging on some dung piles on the field. But soon visibility decreased and taking photos became more difficult. When I got home I decided the shots were pretty worthless unless I used some filters  to bring out the details.

The geese were mostly adult whites with a couple of immatures mixed in, distinguished by the gray feathers on their back and a darker beak.

The spring migration north is much more protracted than the one in the fall, when geese gather at a staging area to fly south. Here is a link to a post I did on the fall migration two years ago.

Here also is a link to the Woodcock's courting song and flight which I recorded last March along with a link to photos of his courting ritual showing him slowly turning in a circle while peenting in every direction.

Visit World Bird Wednesday at The Pine River Review to see many more photos of birds from around the world!