Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Peent...Peent...Weeeeeeeeee

Guess what... another bird adventure!

This evening my dear husband, "Joe Dirt", and I ventured out to Squaw Creek Park to possibly witness the mating flight/dance of the American Woodcock. (He is so patient with me) The sun was setting and the full moon rising. It was a cool clear evening, perfect conditions for love. We sat in the car listening,waiting, listening, waiting, listening, waiting. Then I heard it! Peent...peent....peent, every two seconds or so. Peent is a word to describe a sound that is impossible to describe. After several peents, there is a pause. This is when the male woodcock flies up into the air, 230-328ft, in widening spirals then falls back down in a zig-zag fashion while making a totally different twittery sound which I cannot even try to describe.






  After he silently hits the ground, hopefully near his lady friend, he resumes his unusual woodcock song, peent....peent....peent.  Courtship, ain't it beautiful?









Isn't he an unusually interesting bird?  The American Woodcock,  also referred to as a timberdoodle, makes good use of camouflage to protect himself from predators.  And how about that beak? A most useful tool I would say for poking around looking for earthworms and insect larvae to eat. Yum!

Oh, by the way, Joe Dirt didn't hear or see any of it. Too many years playing loud music. He sure missed out tonight!

Have a great day!
Prairie Clover







2 comments:

  1. Cute! I wish I could have seen the courtship dance. We watched a good program on Marty Stouffer's "Wild America" that feautured nothing but the timberdoodle. I missed out!

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  2. It's very possible that I am "Wild Rose"- do I have another blog somewhere?? Hmmm.... well, I love the American Woodcock although I have never seen one!

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