COURTING WOODCOCKS AND SNIPE

      American woodcocks and Wilson's snipe are inland sandpipers that have several characteristics in common.  Both kinds are camouflaged in their respective habitats, making them hard to spot.  Both species have chunky bodies and long, straight beaks they use to probe in soil and mud after invertebrates to eat.  Each kind has sensory receptors on the tips of their bills to detect prey underground.  I see both these species at some time of the year in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  Females of both species lay four eggs in a clutch laid on the ground.  Chicks of these species hatch fluffy, camouflaged and ready to move about and feed themselves.  And both kinds have intriguing, aerial courtship displays that attract females of each kind to mate and raise young, and discourage rival males of each species.  Those courtship displays also make these species appealing to us.

     Male woodcocks start courting in Pennsylvania during warmer evenings in late February and continue most evenings, at sunset, into early May.  About sunset, each male woodcock flies up from a dead-leaf- carpeted, successional woodland floor and out to a bare spot of ground in a nearby abandoned field.  There he stands with his long bill on his chest and vocally "beeps" for about a minute.  Then he takes off in swift, spiraling flight up and up, his wings whistling rhythmically all the while.  At the height of his flight, he vocally sings, "tu, tu, tu, tu", over and over, while floating high on the wind.  Then he plunges to that same bare spot in a field, or another one, and starts his routine again, and again.  Only hunger or a receptive female woodcock releases him from his commitment to his intriguing, aerial displays.   

     Woodcocks nest on successional woodland floors in eastern North America.  Their feather colors and patterns blend them into the dead-leaf covering of those woods floors to protect them where they live, probe for invertebrates in the loose, rich soil, and raise offspring.  

     Male Wilson's snipe also perform interesting aerial, courtship displays over moist, short-grass habitats, such as meadows.  There breeding range includes Canada up to the Hudson Bay, Alaska and the very northern strip of the United States.  Each snipe circles and dives over his nesting territory, often climbing high in the process.  He flares his tail feathers as he ascends, causing air to rush over them, which creates a whirring, haunting "hu, hu, hu, hu, hu."  That ethereal, winnowing sound is the best part of snipe courtship displays, well worth listening to.

     Each female snipe nests on the ground, near water, in a short-grass habitat.  Their feather coloring and pattern blends them into the color of bare ground along streams and ponds where they poke for invertebrates to ingest.   

     These inland sandpipers each have their own habitat, woodcocks in the woods and snipe in wet meadows.  Having their own niche greatly reduces competition for invertebrate food between these species.  And each  kind of sandpiper has its own courtship display to attract females of each kind for mating and raising chicks.  As always, nature, created by God, is absolutely wonderful. 

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