New life on Plum Island 5-14-08

For the past three years I have been fortunately been shown or found an American Woodcock on nest. This year seemed more special as I had shown to others what they might have missed, the American Woodcock. How some were astounded that someone, not me, had found this beauty along the marsh trail in among the leafage, and I agreed each time how special it was.

Today I had off and one of the first places I went to was the see if the woodcock was still on her nest. When I got there I found that she was but something was different. Next to her I could see two eggs. Someone had told me that they had seen her move off the nest and had seen two eggs. One of these eggs had hatched as I could see the opening. Why was she still here? Were there more eggs to hatch? The answer came shortly as the mother woodcock got up and walk back behind the small tree that I had used as a landmark on finding her. As she moved off the nest, first one then two and then three and four heads popped up. She had had her babies during the night and had four not two eggs to hatch.

I tried to get some photos of the hatchlings, but the sun had only been up for twenty minutes and the light to little though I tried. So I watch for the few minutes that it took her and hatchling to walk around the tree and then back to the nest and settle back down. I was surprised to see this as I thought that once the eggs hatch the mother would take them away from the nest and not return. My thoughts were that maybe there was one egg left to hatch that I had not noticed or she was waiting for the day to get just that little bit warmer before disappearing into the woods.

I came back to the spot about an hour later to find that she had finally left. Will I ever have such a special moment like this ever again?


If you look closely you will see an egg to her left and the baby to the right next to her bill.