It must have rained timberdoodles Friday night, because Saturday morning I came across 25 of them in Green-Wood. This shattered my record. Another three were probably repeats, flushed from here to there.
A cold front fall of American Woodcock. (Besides fall of woodcock, plump, cord, and rush are recored as collective nouns for them; I hereby nominate “fluster” because they make a noisy fuse when flushed.) I got a hint this might be the case because on Friday, people were reporting a lot of them smashed up in the city. These are low migratory fliers, and the city’s buildings and glass winnows an awful toll.
At one point, I saw some motion out of the corner of my eye. Bins up: a Hermit Thrush next to a tree. Behind the thrush in my binocular view was a Woodcock!
Scanning under this one tree, I saw four more. Under a nearby bush, one more. Half-a-dozen nestled together in close proximity. And not a one flushed!
More tomorrow? Hellya!
Backyard and Beyond 
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