Hi all, In keeping with the three separate incidences of displaying American Woodcock thus far reported here in January, I can add two more. Bill Thompson had one at dusk back on January 6th at the Wilds in Muskingum County. And a friend down in Adams County, Steve Wilson, wrote to say that he's had a woodcock displaying since October 10, and it still continues. And this is the 2nd year in a row! So, we're up to at least five January reports, and there's no doubt many more woodcock than that out there. Although they might regret this behavior right about now, with the weather becoming winter-like again. I see where Peterjohn (The Birds of Ohio, 2001) lists but four January records. So, this run of woodcock really is unprecedented, based on historic records. Woodcock are worm-eaters, and have to have soft soil to probe in, so finding food has been no problem for them thus far. I've seen a number of rainy days this January where earthworms have been all over the pavement, forced from the ground by all of the precipitation. Something that isn't widely known but of interest when one considers woodcock - and many other issues of forest ecology - are non-native earthworms. Apparently, an enormous number of worms are not native - they are introductions from Europe and Asia, and have built in numbers until they are abundant and often the only worms to be found in some locales. This worm invasion has been shown to have ill effects on the ecology of forests' ground layers, but woodcock may well benefit, at least in the short term, because of this bonanza of food. Jim McCormac Columbus, Ohio ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]