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The
Woodcock is a large relative of the Snipe is the only bird in the big family
of waders to have adapted completely to woodlands. In the winter it may be flushed
from damp hollow or rivulet in beech, oak or mixed woods. It occasionally calls
out on rising, but it usually rises silently and, like a partridge, very suddenly
from almost underfoot. It weaves away, jinking' from side to side, the manoeuvre
which makes it hard even for a good shot to hit. As it flies it shows red-brown
at each side of its fanned tall, then, when out of range of shot, clear of the
trees, it may circle over the wood, a tubby bird with its long bill prominent,
at a downward angle, and with broad wings. Woodcock are seen best when they
circle their large territory at remarkably regular intervals towards dusk and
at dawn. This peculiar flight is called 'roding' and occurs from March to July.
The bird flies well above the trees with a slow wing-beat and every now and
again it hesitates and gives a croaking call before or after a high pitched
double note which carries far. The combined call is 'tissick, tissick, grrrk-grrrk.'
Woodcock feed mostly at dusk and dawn, probing soft mud for worms with their
long bill, which has a sensitive expanded tip. They nest on the ground in bramble,
bracken and general tangle under trees in oak, mixed or pine woods all over
Britain. Nests should not be sought, for if disturbed before the eggs are hatched,
the birds will desert them readily. If they are hatched, however, and the nest
is disturbed even slightly, the parent birds carry the young away one by one
held between the legs in a low flight. In October many Woodcock arrive here
from northern Europe for the winter. |
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