Nature Bulletin No. 123   September 27, 1947
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
William N. Erickson, President
Roberts Mann, Supt. of Conservation

****:WOODCOCK

The woodcock formerly was one of our most important game birds 
because of its fine flesh and because it is so difficult a target. When 
flushed, it rises almost vertically and then darts away in a whistling 
twisting night. Thirty years ago it was believed to be almost extinct in 
these north central states but now it is increasing in numbers. It is still 
protected and may not be hunted in Illinois but in many states there is 
an open season of 15 days during the fall migration.

In recent years woodcock nests, on the ground, crude and almost 
indistinguishable from their surroundings, have been observed by our 
naturalists in various forest preserves; and this summer several of 
these birds have been seen.

The woodcock is a good-sized chunky russet-colored member of the 
snipe family, a shore bird that nests in and frequents nearby thickets 
and woodlands. In daytime it hides, motionless, in these thickets 
where its markings and coloring make it practically invisible. Unless it 
flushes, only the keenest woodsman may detect it, and then only by its 
large handsome eyes set high in its head.

It is also called the "bog sucker" and the "mud snipe" because it feeds 
in wet meadows and on the shores of swamps and ponds where, 
usually at night, it probes vigorously for grubs and earthworms with its 
long flexible bill.

Known to arrive in the Chicago area in March and early April, and 
seen here until October or early November, the comings and goings 
and habits of the woodcock are incompletely understood as yet. This 
we do know: in spring an elaborate courtship is carried on at dawn and 
at dusk, at chosen areas called "peenting grounds" because of the nasal 
"peent" like call of the male. In his courtship night the male soars 
spirally to a height of 200 or 300 feet and then plunges down in a 
series of zigzag swoops, uttering bursts of ecstatic warbling song.

Competent observers maintain that the young are frequently carried 
from place to place by the mother who clasps them between her legs 
and her body, or with her feet. If so, she is the only bird known to fly 
carrying her helpless young.