DATE CHANGES - Woodcock (Timberdoodle) Evening Walks! Fri, Mar 10 (canceled)/change to Thu, Mar 16
Updated: Mar 10
Cancellation for Fri, Mar 10 - Date Change to Thu, Mar 16
Due to Impending Weather
Join other West Vincent Township resident ornithologists and nature lovers to catch these ground-dwelling birds do their mating dance in Opalanie Park!
The American woodcock (Scolopax minor), also known as the timberdoodle, is a ground-dwelling bird that lives in young forest and shrublands. Woodcock breed across eastern North America and spend the winter in lowlands from the Mid-Atlantic south to the Gulf Coast states.
"The male woodcock’s evening display flights are one of the magical natural sights of springtime in the East. He gives buzzy peent calls from a display area on the ground, then flies upward in a wide spiral. As he gets higher, his wings start to twitter. At a height of 200–350 feet the twittering becomes intermittent, and the bird starts to descend. He zigzags down, chirping as he goes, then lands silently (near a female, if she is present). Once on the ground, he resumes peenting, and the display starts over again.”
Learn more about these interesting birds at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds or Ruffled Grouse Society, American Woodcock Society
Event details:
Please rsvp and join our EAC on Thursday, March 16, 2023 (no rain date), at 6:00 p.m. at Opalanie Park.
We will leave the parking lot at 6:15 p.m. We will walk down to near dump area and hope to spy the American Woodcock doing their dusk mating ritual! We are asking all participants to check in and out at the parking lot with EAC volunteer, Rachel McKay on date of event!
There is NO rain date for Thu, Mar 16. Please dress appropriately and bring flashlights. Although the walk may not extend further than 8:30 p.m., all guests would need to exit the park no later than 9:00 p.m.
Rain will cancel the walk. You will be notified via email from R. McKay and a notice will be placed on the WVT website and Facebook page in the event of cancellation.