Timberdoodle: colloquial name for woodcock Among the best places in the Ann Arbor area to find woodcock are 1) Timberdoodle Hill (Loch Alpine) 2) County Farm Park (Platt Rd. off Washtenaw) 3) Barton Nature Area (Huron River Drive at and west of the dam) 4) Northeast Area Parks (Pontiac Trail and Dhu Varren) 5) Pioneer Prairie (off Scio Church behind Pioneer HS) Bruce Date sent: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 10:07:27 -0500 From: "Edwin Sanchez" To: Subject: Re: Woodcock? To those of you who expressed an interest in the woodcock site, here are the directions to Timberdoodle Hill: Take Huron River Drive past Delhi Park 1/2 mile past park make right onto Loch Alpine Drive At Y bear right onto LA Drive East Drive around lake and up hill At top of hill make right onto Prospect Court At cul-de-sac, *** park on side away from houses *** Trail starts there. ***Please note*** Timberdoodle Hill (this is my name for it) is private property, although it has never been posted and the locals use it informally. So please be quiet and park away from the houses! Thanks. Timberdoodles can be seen/heard just about anywhere, but best spot is at the top of the hill in the clearing. Best time is right at dark. Binocs usually are not useful. Walk quietly and listen for peents of males on the ground. They always peent before the flight songs. And they almost always land back near the spot from where the took off. So if you hear a peenting male, stay put and let him fly up. Then during the flight, move towards his base. In this way he will actually land very close to you. Of course, if you get too close you could scare him off, not to mention ruining his love life. Eddie Sanchez [Note: There's a clearing at the top of a little hill just 50 yards from the start of the trail. Look and listen there. The primary spot you'll want to check, though, is a larger clearing at the primary hill, which is 300 more yards along the trail beyond the first hill. -- Bruce 3/4/00] > Sarah, > > There is a great spot for woodcock in the Loch > Alpine area (off Huron River Dr, near Delhi). It's > a place I used to call Timberdoodle Hill because it > was so reliable for these birds and their displays. > Once saw 6 individual males doing their flight songs > one evening. If interested let me know. > > Eddie Sanchez > > PS Don't live in the area any more so I can't > report on up-to-date activity. For that maybe John > Mills can report? > > PPS Funny you should mention the "peent" of > nighthawks. Timberdoodles make a similar call while > on the ground and preparing for the flight song. ------------- Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 10:43:36 -0500 (EST) From: Jimi Lee Haswell To: Edwin Sanchez Cc: birders@umich.edu Subject: Re: Woodcock? darn it, this reminds me that I was going to run out to County Farm and check them last night. I have a garden out there and can almost always hear them in the park. I'll try and remember to go check tonight. you know, these things crack me up. i have tried to band them before and it is hysterical and frustrating. as Ed says, they will peent (although I call it "deeent" as they don't really get the "p" thing going), which the sound just cracks me up. you can count their deents and they almost always go with nearly the same number before the take off. When they go into flight, they make a trill sound, which I can do but not spell. It's like the sound the Bedouin women make at a wedding. lol. As soon as you hear the trill start, you have lift off. Look up (straight up HIGH) and you can spot them. As soon as the trill stops they are desending (FAST!!!) and they make little chrips on their way down (FAST!!!). If you are already fairly close to their take off spot, probably stay put because sometimes they move a little when they land anyway. I've had them practically land on me. As Ed says, you don't want to get on their mating ground spot and screw things up anyway. They are usually dancing from a little clearing or a sandy type spot, and of course doing all this to attract the females to them. The females are demurely sitting in the balcony taking note of particularly impressive flights, deents, chirps, and trills, not unlike humans. I've taped them (and have a tape somewhere) that we use to use when we'd try and band them. It's really insane to try and get them to either land or take off into the mist net. I've seen an aggressive male attack the tape player and avoid the net all together. It's best if you have some good coffee or beer and ready for some laughs because you are running around trying to move the net to where you think they will land or take off next and everybody is deenting and trilling. Great fun. Clear nights are best as the candlelight power of the moon is a factor hear. You won't get much, if any action on a cloudy night. On clear nights, sometimes they will go until you are tired and leave and a good sight will have several in the air at a time and they are going up and down like popcorn. I don't typically go out to see them down here. But at my place up north it is a major ritual. They dance and nest out back of the house and we always grab a few beers and go out and sit on the ground and have a good show. Then come the fiddle heads (steam them with butter and lemon, like asparagus. yumm) and morels. jl Jimi Lee Haswell jimilee@umich.edu University of Michigan Virus Busters (http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/) Donate food for free! ---> http://www.hungersite.com/