FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Woodcock

["Todd V. Eastin" <eastin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

8 July 2005    
Orchard Bog
Shady Valley
Johnson County    
4 pm to 5:30pm

In one area of Orchard Bog, where I go at least twice a week, I often scare up 
a woodcock.  On 4 July there were 2 of them.  This spring there was a nest with 
3 eggs, that had been abandoned-light brown eggs with darker small splotches 
--37mm long. Maybe thiers?? Today, I was driving around the mowed trail to "the 
maple" and encountered a woodcock sitting along the left side of the trail.  My 
car is very quiet, and I stopped when I realized it was a bird, and not a few 
dried up leaves--about 20 ft from it.  For the next hour and a half, I watched 
it preen, fluff up and spread its wing out over its tail leaning to the 
opposite side to sun.  Its eye would begin to close in this position.  Then up 
and preening again, sun the other side and stretch.  It would stand up and do 
the bobbing motion keeping the head perfectly still. For a while it walked and 
bobbed along feeding in the edge of the tall grass.  I could see it swallow 
when it found an edible bit.   A groundhog was nearby for a while, and when it 
rose up on its hind legs, the bird would become alert.  When a great blue heron 
flew by about 20 ft above us, it flattened out on the ground with its head 
along the ground-virtually disappearing in the grass.  Then of all things, 3 
beagles with their tails wagging nonstop made their way along the trail toward 
us.  They did not notice the bird as they trotted by on the opposite side of 
the trail, and the bird just stayed low and very still. They circled my car, 
tails bumping the sides--no doubt leaving a signature on the tires.   Finally I 
felt I had to go on to finish work, so I started the car-again very quiet being 
a hybrid- and slowly moved as far as I could to the other side of the trail.  
The bird was alarmed and ran easily along the edge of the tall grass, but did 
not panic or fly, and did not go off into the tall grass. It was only about 5 
ft from me.   As I came back out about an hour later, it was gone.

This was a lovely gift in the midst of a hot, seedy, exhausting, and itchy day.

Lynn Eastin
Shady Valley, TN
Biotechnician TNC/Knoxville Zoo