Evening Walk - Woodcock and Peepers

Holly and some of her friends from church were doing an evening walk tonight along the Niskayuna Bike Path to watch for woodcock in their spring mating displays and listen to spring peepers. It was a cool, clear, moonlit evening, and it seemed like a good idea, so I tagged along.

We started hearing the woodcock's odd buzzing sounds almost immediately, but they were on the ground at that point, and we couldn't see them in the underbrush. They weren't yet flying, so we headed down to the marshy area near the bike path to listen to the peepers first instead. They were very loud, and sounded just like the second sound byte on that page linked above. It was getting darker, so we headed back up the hill to try and see the woodcocks do their thing. We heard numerous twittering sounds of the birds in flight, but couldn't pick them out as they rose against the darkening sky. As we neared the cars, stars were increasingly appearing, and we picked out some of the more well-known constellations, as well as Saturn. Some of us even caught a glimpse of a meteor or two.

I'm starting to believe that spring may really be here.