One Maine Woodcock finds some worms

Things are melting here fast although it isn't all that warm.
Click to expand...

Sun is high now--we are almost at the equinox. My black metal roof is almost completely clear now, except for the north side and a piece shaded by a big hemlock.
 
Things are melting here fast although it isn't all that warm.
Click to expand...

Sun is high now--we are almost at the equinox. My black metal roof is almost completely clear now, except for the north side and a piece shaded by a big hemlock.
Click to expand...

Don't ya know it, love to feel some real heat out of the sun. We always get a good clam run near the equinox - great time to be out.
 
That first one is a big female and the second is a male. I have been wondering how they were doing with this blizzard. My old colleague, Greg Sepik, who was at the biologist at Moosehorn NWR in Calais, Maine said the woodcock always arrived on March 28th. So I knew that this storm was likely to hit them on their way north.
 
Good morning, Jeff~

I've watched a lot of courting Woodcock over the years - but this little Two-step was a real treat. Thanks!

SJS
 
I lived on the Tug Hill Plateau (NY) for 10 years (85-95); moved there to do graduate work on ruffed grouse. I remember well Feb. 15, 1985...my major professor was driving me around my study area and, on a little hummock along an interior road stood a woodcock. We were quite amazed; the Plateau gets a LOT of snow, even into April. My then wife and I had purchased our first home there (near Parish, NY); we had 17 acres of mostly woodcock habitat. In March of whatever year that was, the peenting had already started; we had pretty bare ground. Several days later, more than three feet of snow. Thank heavens for dense alder runs...the birds were able to take refuge there. They are such cool birds; lovely for training young bird dogs.
Someone mentioned the late Greg Sepik. On our alleged honeymoon in '85, we went to Maine and visited Moosehorn. Greg literally gave us the keys to the refuge. As we toured around, I was seeing funnel traps really in disrepair. Thought to myself that the guys there weren't paying attention to them very well. When we were giving the keys back, somehow the traps got mentioned, and Greg told me about the bear problems they were having; the traps had become like an ice cream stand for them, so they were shut down and the bears were just beating them up. I'd done a lot of grouse and woodcock trapping in NY and WI; never even thought of having bear problems! It's always something!
Gary
 
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