Secretive woodcocks take center stage for a few weeks each spring.
Anita Carpenter T hose funny-looking brown birds with the long bills slipped back into dense thickets and moist woodlands under cover of darkness. Returning in mid to late March, the secretive, well-camouflaged birds are inconspicuous until their familiar nasally peents break the twilight stillness of a warm evening in early spring. Each amorous male woodcock claims a favorite clearing in which to perform. He advertises his presence and tries to impress female woodcocks with song and a dizzying aerial display. Leaping from his chosen spot, he ascends, spiraling up in ever-widening circles, his short rounded wings making a twittering sound as he rises.