{"id":1901,"date":"2013-04-22T22:49:46","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T02:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/outdooredguys.wordpress.com\/?p=1901"},"modified":"2013-04-22T22:49:46","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T02:49:46","slug":"sky-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/environmental-education\/2013\/04\/22\/sky-dance\/","title":{"rendered":"Sky Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"

“He flies in low from some neighboring thicket, alights on the bare moss, and at once begins the overture: a series of queer throaty peents spaced about two seconds apart, and sounding much like the summer call of the nighthawk.”<\/p>\n

This is how Aldo Leopold, in A Sand County Almanac<\/a>, begins his poetic description of the “sky dance”, the spring courtship ritual of a little-known bird called the American woodcock<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 It is of the shorebird family, but makes it’s home in forests and wetlands.\u00a0\u00a0 With short legs on a rotund body, big bulging eyes and a too-long beak,\u00a0 “attractive” is not a word that immediately comes to mind.\u00a0 But for entertainment value it has no match.<\/p>\n

\"http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:American_Woodcock_Scolopax_minor.jpg\"<\/a>

http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:American_Woodcock_Scolopax_minor.jpg<\/p><\/div>\n

The male emits a nasal “peent”, and rotates through the cardinal points of the compass broadcasting his message to any females within hearing distance.\u00a0 Then he takes to the air in a spiral pattern, his flight feathers making a twittering sound that becomes more frantic as he approaches the apex.\u00a0\u00a0 Finally he drops from the sky like a fluttering leaf and begins his calls anew.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I took the video below with an iPad this past weekend at our cottage near Tobermory on the Bruce Penninsula.\u00a0 I coaxed my daughter Sydney and her friend Emma to come out to witness the ritual, then went back out on my own.\u00a0 This is an event I love, and don’t get to witness often enough.\u00a0 Like making maple syrup, there is a very short window in spring in which to enjoy the woodcock’s antics, and we were lucky enough to time our arrival with his efforts.<\/p>\n

Ignore the orientation of the video if you can, but listen – against the backdrop of spring peepers and the wind and waves of Lake Huron – for the peenting, followed by the twittering of it’s spiralling flight.\u00a0 Watch closely and you’ll see the bird – stage left –\u00a0 flutter back down to earth and begin his amorous actions again.\u00a0 Who wouldn’t be moved by such an elaborate show of affection!!<\/p>\n

[wpvideo Z269YCQR]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“He flies in low from some neighboring thicket, alights on the bare moss, and at once begins the overture: a series of queer throaty peents spaced about two seconds apart, and sounding much like the summer call of the nighthawk.” This is how Aldo Leopold, in A Sand County Almanac, begins his poetic description of […]<\/p>\n

Read more about<\/strong> Sky Dance<\/cite> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13972,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/environmental-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/environmental-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/environmental-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/environmental-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13972"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/environmental-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/environmental-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/environmental-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/environmental-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/environmental-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}