Reprinted from my Febr 27 2004 column in the Morgantown Dominion Post
The American Woodcock just might be the most interesting bird you will ever see in West Virginia. It is a shorebird; birds common to the ocean shores, tidal mud flats and marshes. However, the woodcock has abandoned his shorebird haunts and lives in the uplands east of the Mississippi.
Woodcock are small, plump birds, bigger than robins, smaller than grouse, with a long bill or beak that serves him well. He uses it to probe for earthworms in moist soils. The end of February finds the first early arrivals, moving into southern West Virginia. During mild winters you can find them "singing" in Morgantown in late February. Not this year. It will be mid-March before the first males stop here, while headed for Maine, Ontario, Nova Scotia, all points north. Most continue on, but a few will stay in West Virginia and breed.
It is his courtship ritual that makes the woodcock so captivating. Twenty minutes before dark, the males start to sing and do their courtship flights, ending at dark. The courtship ritual is so interesting that all would enjoy seeing it. Chances are that even if it was happening in your back yard, most folks wouldn’t know they were there.
Migrating males return to the same singing ground each year. The singing ground is a small, location (maybe 40 feet wide) where the male sets up a breeding territory. He performs his courtship flights and songs there, and females come to visit. Many times there is a cluster of singing grounds in one small area. Dominant males get the best spots, and other males set up singing grounds around them. Just before dark, the males flutter into their singing grounds. As one author put it, their incoming flight reminds you of a giant moth. Immediately the male gives an insect-like call, a very nasal "peent" call. He struts slowly and repeats this "peent" every twenty seconds or so. After five minutes, he takes off, low, directly into the wind and you can hear the twirr of his wing beats. Then he spirals upward to 300 feet.
At the very apex of his flight, you will hear chirps, warbling chirps, as he dives almost straight to the ground. I used to take groups of twenty or so wildlife students to observe these birds every spring. As soon as the bird took off, we’d move in quietly and sit in a circle around the singing ground. The male lands on the exact same spot each time, so if you are quiet you can move in and watch the whole show. From the time he takes off until he lands, you have about thirty-forty seconds to get in place. Then the bird lands, "peents" again for two minutes and repeats the aerial circus. After twenty-thirty minutes, the show is over for another night. However, on clear nights, with a full moon, woodcock have been known to perform into the wee hours.
This courtship ritual is extremely intriguing and more than one observer has been moved to seek a career in wildlife after watching it. Yes, it is that captivating. Back in the early 1980's some of my graduate students and I conducted various research studies on this neat little shorebird. Such research wasn’t new to West Virginia. Joe Rieffenberger (the same biologist, recently retired, who did bear work here in recent years), Bill Kletzly and William Goudy with the West Virginia Division of Wildlife, conducted woodcock research at Canaan Valley. At that time Canaan was the largest chunk of woodcock habitat south of the New England states.
And so it was that Bryan Shissler, Mark Ellingwood, and I began our work here in Morgantown, and at the McClintock Wildlife Management area in Point Pleasant. Our objectives were to learn more about their habitat and breeding ecology so we could make suggestions on how to best manage the bird. We’d set up mist nets and capture and tag male woodcock as they performed on their singing grounds. Though the habitats for these birds still exist in West Virginia, and other parts of the East, they are on the decline. A decline that is slow, but steady, and although I do not think extinction is possible, woodcock numbers will become quite low in the future. Here is an example of what is causing the decline.
In the early eighties, we looked at aerial photos to find singing ground locations in the Morgantown area. Once we’d find potential sites on the maps, we’d go into the field to check them out. We found one such location on the map that we felt would hold over thirty singing grounds. It was an upland flat off the Canyon Road. When we drove out to check the site, it had been cleared of vegetation and construction was underway. The birds were gone. That area was to become the Pines Country Club. We did find twenty-four singing grounds near Sunset Beach and for years that is the locations I’d take students to observe this bird. Not anymore. Three years ago, I went back and heard one singing male. That area is now Greystone, and the new golf course. We also found some birds in Round Bottom along the Monongahela River toward Fairmont and others near Core. My guess is there are still some birds there, but probably reduced in numbers.
Yes, habitat loss is the reason for the steady decline in woodcock numbers. The flat, wetter areas once located on the edge of towns every where, are now towns or golf courses, or shopping malls or football stadiums, or whatever. Look at the changes that have taken place in Canaan Valley over the past thirty years. Development has sucked up part of the most prime woodcock habitat found anywhere in the country. Yes, birds still breed there. Yes, migrant woodcock still stop there. But bird numbers have decreased. The creation of a National Wildlife Refuge has been a blessing for the woodcock and at least in that part of the valley, habitat will remain.
Woodcock numbers are down, and probably will continue to decrease year after year. The woodcock will remain, but in much lower numbers. The shame is that so many more of us won’t get to see them perform this most interesting courtship ritual.
