[TN-Bird] Woodcock Facts

From: "Thomas Edwards" <tomandmissy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 18:01:09 -0600
Here are some neat facts about an unusual bird

The courtship flights, term "sky dance" was termed  by Aldo Leopold in Sand 
County Almanac.
Woodcock courtship is done on a "singing ground"
Woodcocks make a number of calls, two of them are the tuko (low grunting), and 
the peent.
After calling, the male spirals upward and a faint twittering sound is made as 
wind passes through
his three narrow outer primary feathers.(when cut off the twittering will be 
silent)
On the return down, he makes a chirping call and often returns to the exact 
spot.
Some nicknames are bec noir, becasse,bog borer, bog sucker, big eyes, swamp 
bat, mud bat, hokumpake, Labrador twister, whistler, marsh plover, big-eyed 
John, swamp quail, snipe, blind snipe, brush snipe, cane snipe, hill partridge, 
timberdoodle
Takes 21 days to hatch the 4 spotted eggs
May fly 2 miles in one evening for food
Meroka (1939) was the first biologist to use a headlight and hand net to 
capture woodcock at night for banding
In Louisiana, Glasgow and workers 1949-1958 banded 8,192 birds by nightlights 
and hand held nets.
In deep south, poachers would "fire light" woodcocks and sell them for $1.50 
per pair.
Favorite food is earthworms, which may limit their northern expansion.
Most important wintering parishes in Louisiana are Pointe Coupee, West Baton 
Rouge, and Iberville.
Sex is determined by bill length and size of outer primary feathers.
Woodcocks have upside down brains.
Their bills are prehensile, meaning the very tip can open while the bill is 
closed.
Aerial flights during courtship avg. about 275 feet in height.
Females will peent also.
Marshall, indicated that when woody vegetation grew six to ten feet high over 
more than 60% of an area, woodcocks would abandon it.
Mendall and Aldous found in 24 instances, the daytime cover of the male was 
located within 100 yards of his singing ground.
The woodcock gait or waltzing bobbing motion usually indicates the bird being 
nervous or disturbed.
Tennessee is located in the Central route of migration, the other route is the 
western.
New Brunswick is the only place where field trials are run for woodcock.
Top 3 states for woodcock harvest (Sheldon) Michigan, New York, Maine
Only refuge managed strictly for woodcock is in Calais, Maine called Moosehorn.

references,

Sheldon, W. G. 1971  The book of the American Woodcock. University of 
Massachusetts Press: Amherst

Krementz, D. G. and Jackson, J. J.  Woodcock in the Southeast: Natural History 
and Management for Landowners

Tommy Edwards
Wildlife Manager, TWRA
Yanahli Wildlife Management Area
Columbia, Tn

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[TN-Bird] Woodcock Facts

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