After reading Aaron's reminder to get out and look for woodcocks I
made a point of going out last night to check the fields behind my house
to see if any of the woodcocks were doing a display flight.

(The first woodcock returned here on February 28th.  We had two or three
really cold days after that and I wondered how long they could get by if
the ground froze.)

Sure enough, at about 7:45 the first woodcock flew by me in an arc,
and made a loud
chirping sound as he was descending.

Another bird made a circle very high above me, and disappeared in the
dark sky.
No twittering that I could hear. (8:15 pm)

And one more landed near by.  I could hear the peent calls from three
different
locations in the fields.

These are old agricultural fields with lots of brushy cover. In the
day time I usually find the woodcocks
coming out of the dense buckthorn thickets to probe the damp low areas
in the paths.

(For the OBBA this location had an OS designation for a. woodcock last
year.)

Inga Schmidt
Chagrin River Road, Geauga/Cuyahoga line

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