Woodcock success story: Dawn Keller of Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation releasing once injured bird. (Photo by Phil Hampel)
Only a seven minute drive away, the closest spot to where I live for good woodcocking is a fascinating place named Wolf Road Prairie in the town of Westchester. Wolf Road Prairie consists of a core area of about 80 acres of virgin prairie. It is not particularly birdy, but it is most convenient when I need a quick prairie fix. What makes it unique, though, is that crisscrossing the site are sidewalks. It seems that the site was platted for development in the 1920s and the sidewalks were installed as a first step. But then, like a hero untying the damsel from the railroad tracks at the last second, the Great Depression hit, putting an end to any further development. People had bought lots and some still harbored dreams of building into the 1980s. But conservationists launched an effective campaign to save the property and a deal was worked out whereby the state and county would each buy out half the lots. It is now a dedicated nature preserve and watched over carefully by the citizens group, Save the Prairie Society.
Wolf Road doesn’t have the number of woodcock that Middle Fork Savanna does, nor does it have the snipe. It is also the case that the woodcocks tend to be between the observers and a strip mall. I have seen birds doing their aerial gyrations with a California Tanning Salon in the background. But you do have a much better chance of actually seeing the woodcock in that very narrow window between when it first begins its nuptial dance and it becomes too dark to see. And it is also easily accessible at night.
I was joined by two friends, Lynn Rotunno and David Mrazak. Lynn is a graphic designer by trade who spends a great deal of her time working on environmental issues. David is a documentary film maker who co-wrote and co-directed the movie, “Principal’s Story”, a remarkable study of two urban high school principals that aired last fall on PBS. Hopefully, the funding will come through for him to make a documentary on that most riveting of subjects, the passenger pigeon. Both Lynn and David live close by.
Our meeting time was a little on the early side, but not nearly as much as the season’s previous woodcock try. Not much is in bloom yet on the prairie. There were a few golden Alexander, pussy toes, and bastard toadflax (David wondered if there is a legitimate toadflax).
Eventually though, I heard the first buzzy “peent” of the night. There was one bird very close. Although the bird was clearly in the same location, some peents would be louder than others, which prompted David to suggest it might be turning around when it vocalized. I don’t know if that is true but it would explain the variation. Then we heard the flight noise so we knew it was airborne. The twittering and squeaks were clear but nobody could pick it up against the eastern sky. We decided to move towards where the bird had been- if you are lucky, the bird might land on the ground right in front of you. I once was able to observe a bird that way that was totally at ease as it fed. We could actually see the flexible tip to the bill as it probed the soft ground. We did not have that kind of success this night, but we were fortunate enough to get decent looks as the bird descended. A couple of more sequences and we called it a night.
The photo of the release was kindly provided by Dawn Keller and Phil Hampel of Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. They have helped organize a dedicated cadre of bird monitors who venture forth during migration periods recovering injured birds, some of which are nursed back to a state where they can be released. Woodcock show up quite often as victims. Fortunately, there are happy endings such as the bird depicted.
David Mrazek and Lynn Rotunno at Wolf Road Prairie in the glare of blogger's flash.
Tags: Flint Creek Wildlife Center, Wolf Road Prairie, woodcock