Friday, March 16, 2012

Rare Woodcock spotted in Tompkins Square Park

First, please no snickering over the bird's name... Bobby Williams spotted this Woodcock today in the Park...



And, background cut-n-paste from Wikipedia...

The American Woodcock (Scolopax minor), sometimes colloquially referred to as the Timberdoodle, is a small chunky shorebird species found primarily in the eastern half of North America. Woodcock spend most of their time on the ground in brushy, young-forest habitats, where the birds' brown, black, and gray plumage provides excellent camouflage.

Because of the male Woodcock's unique, beautiful courtship flights, the bird is welcomed as a harbinger of spring in northern areas. It is also a popular game bird, with about 540,000 killed annually by some 133,000 hunters in the U.S.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! That is one adorable bird...glad it came to visit. Perhaps it will find a roommate and stick around...

Mark said...

Woo woo! Nice spotting Bobby!

Marty Wombacher said...

Great work by Bobby Williams! The Marlin Perkins of the EV!

Laura Goggin Photography said...

Wow! Each day, I love that park more.

Anonymous said...

well, that explains the little scene at the dog park: around 1pm no less than 3 bird dogs (an english setter, german wire haired pointer, brittany spaniel) all gathered at the north fence, focused on a single spot in the brush across the walk. it was unusual to see that many dogs be so intent on one spot. we could see a bird but couldn't figure out what it was. i guess they knew.

evflip said...

Hooray for the Timberdoodle and hooray for Bobby's eye!

Hey19 said...

What? Woodcock wasnt silly enough? they had to call it Timberdoodle?

Anonymous said...

I saw one of these birds hanging out on the corner of 3rd Ave and 40th St, two years ago. The east side is on their migration route.