I stopped at the Hike-Bike side of Huntley (off of South Kings
Highway) this evening, for Timberdoodles. Following earlier
instructions, I went to the first field on left. I met Kevin there who
was also waiting for the show.
At 10 minutes after sunset (7:25pm this evening), males began peenting
in the woods opposite the field. There were at least 3 separate males
calling and eventually moving to the field and doing display flights.
There was even an instance of what appeared to be one male chasing
another in flight. There was one particular male that liked the open
area between the pines in the middle of the field and the road,
repeatedly doing his peenting display there and then returning to more
or less the same spot after his display flight. So great views, as he
slowly rotated, peenting to all the points of the compass, and close
enough you could hear the additional softer sound before the peent
(possibly a deep breath, not sure).
This one woodcock went on until about 7:50, when I left. He was the
only one left displaying at that point and his peenting had slowed
from one per 2 or 3 seconds to more than 6 seconds between peents.
Regards,
Russ Taylor
