The Woodcocks Dance!!!

I have just received this fabulous photo from Ilija Dukovski - a nature lover and fantastic photographer. It takes someone really skilled to get a night time photo like this.

For some reason, this woodcock reminds me of a comedian, sitting back, sizing up the audience and getting ready to deliver a great one-liner!

While this is chronologically out of order, it is so exciting!

As far as I know there were two very successful woodcock expeditions at Nahanton Park this week. The first one was Wednesday evening and included Jane, Haynes, Chris, Pete and Brian. The woodcocks were seen in all their glory on top of Woodcock meadow and I think Brian mentioned that he also saw them on the soccer field. It was Jane's first sighting and it was quite an amazing experience. If any of you want to write more on the blog yourselves, please contact me.

The second viewing was Friday evening. I met Jane there and while we were waiting on top of the hill, Alison appeared and then shortly after came Eric and then Ilija and his family. Shortly after 7:00, we heard our first "peeent". Jane found the general area and then Eric was able to spot it. Lucky for us, it was still light enough that we all got a good, long look at it. It was so camouflaged that if you took your eyes off it for one second it was hard to find it again.

It turned out to be a great night. Alison thought there were at least 4 males in the area. At times, they were flying low, right over our heads but also saw them fly high into the air, come down and then land. There were a few bats as well and that got a little confusing for me in the beginning. All in all, it was a great show!