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:

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

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  2. Woo woo! Nice spotting Bobby!

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

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  4. 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.

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

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

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  7. 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.

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