As spring begins, woodcocks return

They are an endearing species, squat and plump with 21/2-inch-long bills. They poke their bills deep into the moist earth, typically to grab an earthworm with the pliable tip.

They migrate at night and put down in the darndest places. Jim Bird and Ed Grew had good views of a woodcock next to the library at the University of Maine. The woodcock walked on the lawn, in spite of the students walking close by.

Woodcocks are odd-looking birds.

Sarah Tanner is a volunteer at the Fields Pond Audubon Center. Once she brought her son and said, “Jonathan saw an unusual- looking bird in Newburgh and he’d like to know what it is.”

I said, “OK, Jon, what did it look like?” Jon told me the color of every feather – brown, yellow, orange, black and white. I was amazed at his memory and overwhelmed with detail. So I said, “Jon, why don’t you draw a picture of the bird, and then maybe I could identify it.”

Jon disappeared awhile, then he came back with a wonderful, detailed sketch and I recognized it instantly – a woodcock! His sketch was so good, I kept it on my door.

Jay Perry was delivering mail in Holden recently when he spotted a bird on the ground near a mailbox. It was brown and streaked. He described it to his wife, Ruth, who works at the Fields Pond Audubon Center. From his description, she thought it might be a wren. Wrens sometimes make a nest in a mailbox. She showed him a picture of a wren. He said, “No, it wasn’t that.”

So she referred him to me. He said, “It walked like this,” as he walked and bobbed his head.

I said happily, “It’s a woodcock!” and we all laughed.

I showed them Jonathan Tanner’s wonderful sketch of a woodcock. “Yes,” said Jay. “That’s just what it looked like.”

If you’ve never seen a woodcock do his courting dance, come to the Fields Pond Audubon Center at 6 p.m. Friday, April 25.

We’ll try to find a woodcock at dusk, and we’ll also try to find a spring peeper – a tiny tree frog, or an owl. There’s a charge of $4 per person and we expect some children since it will be school vacation week. Signup is requested at 989-2591.

We’ll repeat the program at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, but expect mostly adults at that time. Again, the cost is $4 per person.

Keep in mind that the male woodcock doesn’t do his courtship in a heavy rain, but the spring peeper does. Again, signup is requested at 989-2591.