Woodcock

The Timberdoodles were moderately cooperative at Mapleton Preserve - an old nursery that isn't so much managed as let lie - to the north of Princeton. I stood quietly and waiting at the intersection of two trails there - same location as last year - and as it started to get very dark one started peenting in front of me. You could hear the voice aspect change as it moved its head around (I'd seen this happen in previous years). Three or perhaps more joined in by peenting, spread over quite a wide area. Once this provoked the local bird to set off in search - I could hear the low pitched conversational calls as it patrolled the area, then it returned and peented once more. This wasn't quite as good a show as last year, where one circled around me and displayed right above me, but the local bird did take off in a shallow twittering climb and flew past me, climbing into the brighter part of the sky so I could watch it (rather than hear it) climb and descend toward the grassy area west of the road. Although I heard more twittering (climbing) and the burbling it makes on descent, that was the best view I had all night. Last year I watched them on March 12th so I may return here next weekend.