Springtime Skydance Of The American Woodcock
For me it is an eternal wonder as it is for most bird watchers to discover springtime skydance with the American Woodcock (Scolopax minor). The males are the dancers. In nearby shrubs you may notice females observing in silence. The song and dance performance will long be remembered as stunning by all who attend this springtime ritual of courtship observation.
Go to a clearing near a thicket, preferably just a tad moist. Look and tune in from a hidden and low viewing point. Often I would arrive at the best observation post approximately a half an hour before the drama was to begin. Quietly sitting still on my camper stool, with night binoculars at hand, my companions and I would wait for the chunky little brown birds to show themselves.
How did I know when the dance would begin? It was very punctual at just about 22 minutes after sunset each evening when the weather was just right. I never saw them perform this ritual in the rain or on very cloudy evenings.
Once the family learned of this event through reading Aldo Leopold’s 1949 classic A Sand County Almanac, it became out of the question to skip this annual milestone. Leopold considered this the start of spring in the northern woods and named it the “skydance”.
It’s hard to think these stubby little gamebirds belong to the same family as the sandpipers we view skittering across the sands at the beach. They have very short legs, an unusually long bill having a specialized tip which is devised for catching earthworms beneath the surface of the soil. Their mottled brown color looks a lot like fallen leaves on the forest floor.
Sometimes there would be more than one male in the vicinity. Those were exciting times. Each male bird kept its own timing therefore you actually could see one ascending while you were hearing another make its “peent” sound on the ground. They would turn and “peent” again in another direction, repeatedly, presumably to draw the eye of females from all sides. The “peent” sounds like that coming from a nighthawk except its a bit deeper buzz.
The stout little gamebird shoots straight up in the sky in silence. It is a fact that with good hearing or an amplifier it is possible to hear his wings twittering which has a tonal sound as he climbs and does spiral loops until he’s about 300 feet high before he dives back with twittering sounds at the beginning of his return.The twittering sound comes from air passing between wing feathers. His zig-zag dive to the same place on the ground is silent with the exception of the flutterof his quiet wings flapping to a halt. I have no clue how he finds the exact same location everytime he goes up and comes down. But seconds once he lands and settles, he resumes his directional peenting pattern again.
On a common night you are likely to see about 6 sky dance dives per male American Woodcock. They would resume a short while before dawn the next morning. This sophisticated courtship ritual carries on nightly for months, in some areas for approximately four months. It seems to be the activity the males do while the females hatch the brood and grow into fledgling size and then leave the nest. When I first began my annual skydance observations, I thought it was all a courtship ritual to attract a mate. Today I’d say I don’t know if in addition, it has another function that goes beyond the courtship. Perhaps you would have to ask the feisty little woodcock in the field.
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