[Mnbird] Hennepin county woodcock

Thu Nov 14 06:53:14 CST 2019

On Monday November 11 walking on 6th near the Nicollet mall downtown Minneapolis there was a dead woodcock on the sidewalk.  I took a picture . Also a dead flicker and junco nearby . Weekend fatalities .

On Nov 9, 2019, at 12:28 PM, Pamela Freeman via Mnbird <mnbird at lists.mnbird.net<mailto:mnbird at lists.mnbird.net>> wrote:

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<mailto: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<mailto:sweston2 at comcast.net>

On Sat, Nov 9, 2019 at 8:12 AM Pamela Freeman <gleskarider at gmail.com<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto:sweston2 at comcast.net>

On Fri, Nov 8, 2019 at 3:53 PM Kyle TePoel via Mnbird <mnbird at lists.mnbird.net<mailto: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<mailto: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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