Back when I was more energetic (and limber) I snugged up under a cedar in a singing ground and was able to get a very close view of the male peenting and strutting. He came within a few feet of me. A real treat.
I taught a college class on hunting (the literature, art, and conservation issues) for several semesters before I retired. A class requirement was for each student to go on a "hunt." There were many ways to satisfy the requirement, and often I would bring students along with me and the dogs (sans gun) at one of the nearby WMAs. For one "hunt" I took students to a nearby singing ground where we were able to see and hear the sky dance. I'd prepped them with Leopold's writings (and others) and we had a biologist friend come in to talk with them about the bird.
I'll never forget the reaction of some of the students, many of whom were from St. Louis and Kansas City, when they found out these birds existed. It's too bad that so many have become detached from nature, or have the Nat. Geo version only (or even worse, the current Disney version).
The woodcock is a mysterious and marvelous creation.
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"Doubtless the good Lord could have made a better game bird than bobwhite, and better country to hunt him in...but equally doubtless, he never did." -- Guy de la Valdene (from A Handful of Feathers )
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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