woodcock or snipe migrating?

[Cathie Murray]

Hi all,

Sunday evening, August 21, well after sunset on a high point near Rockport, we had 6-8 individual birds fly over our heads, on a generally north to south trajectory. They were not very high over our heads. They were not exactly flying together, in a flock. But they were basically flying the same trajectory and close in time to each other. I did see four at once, following close upon each other. 

We could only see silhouettes. They looked like woodcock or snipe. They were a bit chunky, had long slender bills and their wings made a soft whirring sound. They did not vocalize at all.

Do either/both of those species migrate in loose aggregates?

Are they migrating now?

Anyone else seeing them?

Also saw nighthawks Saturday late afternoon in Whitefield :)

Always good to see them.

Cathie Murray

[Scott Richardson]

I flushed a woodcock in my yard on Sunday. First here since late
March. The usual pattern here is March/April then September/October.
Typically singles.

Scott Richardson
Berwick, York Co.

> --
> Maine birds mailing list
> maine...@googlegroups.com
> http://groups.google.com/group/maine-birds
> https://sites.google.com/site/birding207
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maine birds" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to maine-birds...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/maine-birds/CAPqhjiXE2n8QadvXmkHZ9tVwFwaubzNwncGpOsnpBwNR7ME%3DEQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[cathie...@gmail.com]

Thanks to a couple readers who responded to my query.

What is starting to make sense to me is that they were woodcock and they were heading out of their daytime haunts in the alder thickets and wetland woods habitat in the lowlands to the blueberry barrens behind the house we were visiting for their evening/night roosting. I found this interesting article about woodcock commuting from rich daytime feeding areas to nighttime roosts to lower their risk of predation.  Also this timber doodle.org summary describes the nightly commute in northern areas from mid-July until migration.  It was a privilege to look up and see them in that brief moment of time :)

Cathie Murray