The Woodcock's Dance
About this episode
Bobbie Emery shares a nostalgic reflection on the woodcock's courtship display and its significance in her childhood.
Yesterday, I found a woodcock roosting in the brushy edge of our sheep pasture. It’s been years since I’ve seen one there. We used to hear them every spring as kids, but they lost their favorite field several years ago, and they’ve been slow to return. They are quite particular about where they choose to spend the summer, so I am very pleased we made the grade. They need brushy pastures for roosting, young forests for nesting, moist woodlands for feeding and fields for courtship. In late spring, after the peepers wind down and well before the cicadas start serenading, I instinctively listen for the male’s call. Birding experts quaintly refer to it as the “woodcock’s peent,” but I think it sounds more like a monosyllabic nasally Russian ‘nyet!’. My parents instilled in us a great love for woodcocks and especially the male’s funky, albeit very successful, courtship display. What greatness he clearly lacks in melodic beauty, he more than compensates for with the bravado and enthusiasm of his “sky dance.” Just before sunset, we’d all sit quietly (or as quietly as 5 kids can sit) and wait for the dance to begin, while my parents drank a glass of whatever it was that parents drank. The…
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