FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] American Woodcock (Greene Co., TN)

[Don Miller <raincrow@xxxxxxx>]

June 12, 2006

Greene Co., TN

This evening at around 8:00, I found an American Woodcock in a field 
edge along Brown's Bridge Road in Tusculum.  The site is approximately 
at the intersection of Brown's Bridge Road and Holly Creek Road.  The 
exact spot was a well-vegetated fencerow defining the border of a 
hayfield.  The fencerow is also bordered by Brown's Bridge Road itself.  
The bird appeared to have been flushed by our dog.

About five minutes after I saw the woodcock, Alice Loftin, who was 
standing about a tenth of a mile away, saw four fly past her and settle 
into a wooded riparian zone of Holly Creek.

This area is primarily pastureland gradually giving way to residential 
subdivisions and doesn't seem a likely spot for woodcocks in summer.  
However, it's possible that nesting is taking place not far away in one 
of several large woodlots.  There are also patches of young forest 
reappearing in overgrown fields nearby.  The hayfield where I saw the 
first bird has been a reliable spot for woodcock display in late winter 
for several years.  Since woodcocks often forage in fields near the 
woods where they nest, this might be what we were observing this 
evening.   Given the fact that nesting can occur very early, the group 
of four that Alice saw might contain one or more first-year birds.

Don Miller
Greeneville, Greene Co., TN
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