I love all the diversity in nature. I mean, there is so much diversity in the bird and animal species that it continually amazes me. And spring is great time to witness nature’s full diversity first hand.
Back in late 70’s and early 80’s I was fortunate enough to meet and become friends with the most amazing naturalist and mentor Kathy Heidel. It was spring and in addition to teaching me about morel mushrooms and other spring time events, she showed me the craziest thing. It was the sky dance of the American Woodcock (Scolopax minor).
I remember it like it was yesterday. After an evening of crawling around the woods in search of morel mushrooms Kathy asked me if I had ever seen the sky dance of the woodcock. Of course I had no clue what she was even talking about. After all who had heard of a sky dance? I was eager to learn so we headed over to a large field next to a tall mature forest. The field was covered with the dried up brown stems from last years grasses.
Kathy explained to me that we needed to wait for the sun to set to see the sky dance. So as we waited she began to tell me about American Woodcock. The first amazing thing she explained to me was this bird was an upland shorebird. Now you might say, hold it right there, isn’t that an oxymoron–an upland shorebird? By it’s own definition how can a shorebird be upland? I mean either you’re a shorebird or you’re an upland bird–right? Shorebird means down by the shore, while upland means up in the fields and away from the shore.
Turns out there are many upland shorebirds including the Common Snipe. The woodcock is a plump round bird with short legs, a short neck, large bulbous head and a long thin bill. It is incredibly camouflaged in color with many shades of brown, gray, tan, and black. It uses its long thin bill to probe deep into the soft soils of the forest floor in search of insects such as grubs, and worms. Once it locates a bug or worm the tip of the bill is flexible enough to open and grab the prey even while underground.
However what is truly amazing about this bird is the sky dance. Each spring in April, about 15 minutes after sunset, male American Woodcock move into grassy fields adjacent to mature woodlands. As the western sky glows with the setting sun the male woodcock starts to call. His nasally, single note, call (peent) is repeated over and over. Then suddenly the male takes off and starts to fly upward. As he does, specialized wing feathers produce a series of twittering sounds. Once the bird reaches about 200 to 300 feet he flies in circles, all the while producing these twittering sounds with his wings. Around and around he goes until suddenly he stops twittering and drops like a rock from the sky. On outstretched wings he glides back down to earth landing in the same area he that he left. Then he starts to call again. Every couple of minutes he repeats this flight.
This amazing display is all to impress the female woodcocks which are standing nearby watching the aerial display. Presumably the females are watching several males doing their aerial displays and determining which has the best sky dance. Once she has decided she will approach the male while he is on the ground and they will mate. After mating the male will return to is aerial display and the female will head off into the woods to build a nest and lay her eggs.
This spring while watching and photographing the sky dance I am still awe struck with just how amazing and diverse Mother Nature can be. Even after more than 30 years of seeing the sky dance I am still impressed and humbled. Until next time