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

Sat Nov 9 12:27:53 CST 2019

Interesting.  I wish I had gotten a better look at it. It flew up, not
high, not more than 10 feet and went down again not too distant, 200 feet,
maybe a bit more, but I couldn't tell for sure if it landed where it went
low, or continued its flight in the trees. It was a dogwood and willow
thicket it went back down in, alongside a pond and a stream that feeds from
the pond into Cedar Creek. I didn't pursue it. Didn't wish to frighten it
farther.
I was glad of the glimpse.

On Sat, Nov 9, 2019, 9:49 AM Steve Weston <sweston2g at gmail.com> wrote:

> Snipe are definitely more likely as they try to overwinter if they find an
> unfrozen wet area. Snipe are birds of the marshland. This time of year they
> are found along flowing streams, along the shore, and in muddy seeps.
> Woodcocks are birds of moist woodlands. Earlier in the fall you find them
> under the bushes. This late in the season I am not sure what habitat they
> would seek. They have different flight patterns. The Woodcock has short
> stubby wings and when flushed will tend to stay low, zig-zagging, and
> landing a short distance away. The Snipe is a stronger flyer with longer
> wings that will often circle when flushed. I don't know whether these are
> tendencies or diagnostic characteristics.
>
> Steve Weston
> On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN
> sweston2 at comcast.net
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 9, 2019 at 8:12 AM Pamela Freeman <gleskarider at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> 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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