Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

Woodcock Moon

According to a tweet from a British wildlife trust, November’s first full moon is known as a Woodcock Moon because it “coincides with an influx of these nocturnal woodlanders.” Well, yesterday, on this side of the Atlantic, following Friday night’s full moon, Green-Wood Cemetery was positively timberdoodle-riffic. I counted, conservatively, twenty-eight of the buffy orange-bellied leaf-cammo commandos rocketing from the ground as I blundered about. I’ve never seen more, not even during the Great Woodcock Storm of last March.

4 responses to “Woodcock Moon”

  1. We got 5 ingured woodcocks in yesterday at the Wild Bird Fund .

    1. Damn, when it’s like a cloud of timberdoodles passing through, with too many, in their low, hurtling flight, smashing into so-called civilization …

  2. brendafromflatbush

    Gorgeous photo.

    1. Twenty-eight birds and most skedaddled off into the distance with a whistle; this was the only one I actually got the camera on. They are so good at blending into the leaves on the ground this time of year.

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