[Mnbird] woodcock?! This late?! But I believe so. Northern Anoka County, Oak Grove

[Pamela Freeman]

So, could have been snipe. Certainly was near a marshy area, though the
woods it was in wasn't marshy itself. But adjacent a wet meadow.  Similar
shape and long beak. I had figured it to be one of the two.

On Sat, Nov 9, 2019, 2:06 AM Steve Weston <sweston2g at gmail.com> wrote:

> Woodcock reports through the 10th of November are not unusual. But, there
> are only 8 reports later than that in the state with only 3 reports later
> than the 15th and only one report in December. I have only seen 1 report of
> a Woodcock on the Christmas Bird Counts in the past 5 years or so. Further
> inquiry revealed that the observer who had hunted Woodcock was unfamiliar
> with Snipe and the marsh habitat was far more suggestive of a Snipe
> observation. The observation did not pass review.
>
> Steve Weston
> On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN
> sweston2 at comcast.net
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 8, 2019 at 3:53 PM Kyle TePoel via Mnbird <
> mnbird at lists.mnbird.net> wrote:
>
>> Pamela,
>>
>> I heard woodcock-like "peent"-ing a couple days ago in the Sax-Zim Bog
>> that stopped me in my tracks, as I don't believe I've ever had one in
>> November either. I didn't report it anywhere for the thought that it surely
>> must have been something else, some sort of insect (even though they are
>> pretty much absent by now). But after reading your email, I checked ebird
>> and a very small percentage--but some nonetheless--of Minnesota checklists
>> in early November (.1%) have reported Woodcock, according to their
>> "frequency" bar chart.  See here:
>>
>> https://ebird.org/species/amewoo/US-MN
>>
>> So you might not be crazy (and I might not be either...always debatable)!
>>
>> Kyle Te Poel
>> Stillwater Township, MN
>>
>> On Fri, Nov 8, 2019 at 1:41 PM Pamela Freeman via Mnbird <
>> mnbird at lists.mnbird.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Last weekend I was traipsing and moseying in the woods and thickets
>>> around my yard, it is really bigger than a typical yard, but, it isn't
>>> really big enough to be called 'land' either, at least the parts of it that
>>> are accessible when water is not stiff, that is to say, when it is liquid
>>> and you would need to wade, swim, or slog in mud.
>>> In any case, I was perusing the areas, on the lookout for buckthorn,
>>> which is easy to spot this time of year, everything else (native) having
>>> shed its leaves.
>>> I was in an area that is more thicket than woods, and adjoins a thin
>>> band of wet or moist thicket that adjoins a wet meadow and large marsh and
>>> ponds and creek when something EXPLODED in front of me.
>>> I had just enough time to note the shape and general coloring of the
>>> body, and a rather long beak.
>>> It had to be a woodcock or snipe, and given where it was, and what I did
>>> get a look at, I am fairly certain it was a wood cock.
>>> But, this time of year?
>>> It was NOT a pheasant, though we certainly run across those, but no long
>>> tail, wrong shape and size, and, that beak. It was very obvious and it was
>>> long.. Slender and long.
>>> It's takeoff was noisy, not just the dead leaves and stuff that it
>>> displaced as it exploded upward and forward, but also the sound of its
>>> wings.
>>>
>>> I have not seen one here before, well, I have not seen one before,
>>> outside of a book or a specimen in a museum or nature lab.
>>> So, I was thrilled, but also skeptical, because of the late date.
>>> Still. It was very much identifiable, or so it really did seem to me.
>>> I paged through my Sibley, my Audubon, Peterson's. Nothing else looks
>>> even vaguely like it.
>>> I went to AllAboutBirds online.
>>> Same.
>>>
>>> Otherwise, I am seeing the usual late fall suspects these days, a turkey
>>> now and then, or a few, which I still find exciting because it wasn't so
>>> very long ago that one didn't see them wild here.
>>> Pheasants, of course, I live near open fields and farm fields and
>>> undeveloped land.
>>> Lots of nuthatches, chickadees, juncos by the dozen, a handful of
>>> bluejays who always sound like more than they are, crows, dulled
>>> goldfinches,  occasionally a hawk, at night, we sometimes still hear owls
>>> calling, a few cardinals to provide a cheer of color if not their cheer
>>> call.
>>>
>>> Pamela
>>> Oak Grove
>>> Northern Anoka County
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> - Pamela
>>> Never give up on a dream just because of the length of time it will take
>>> to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. - Unknown
>>>
>>> “There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.”
>>> ― Aldo Leopold
>>> I am one who cannot.
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