Yesterday I was standing in the middle of a rutted dirt road in the Finger Lakes National Forest, scanning with binoculars for frogs along the edges of a large puddle. Caught some movement at the corner of my field of view and in came a female Woodcock, doing the broken wing and flared tail act while looking (with one eye) at me over her shoulder. She tried to draw me away, but I knew better and stayed put, waiting for chicks to follow.
Sure enough, three little Woodcocks came out of the brush along the road and all 4 began to probe the mud at the edge of the puddle. Afraid to move, I still had the binoculars to my eyes and could see every detail. They were about 3/4 the size of their mother, and fully feathered. Their bills and eyes seemed disproportionally large, but that's rather normal for woodcock, I think. They were only about 15 feet away, and watching each through binoculars totally filled the field of view. They are the goofiest things! Sue -- John and Sue Gregoire Field Ornithologists Kestrel Haven Avian Migration Observatory 5373 Fitzgerald Road Burdett,NY 14818-9626 Website: http://www.empacc.net/~kestrelhaven/ "Conserve and Create Habitat" -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
