I got home from work utterly exhausted. So exhausted, in fact, that I decided to cook pasta rather than rice so I wouldn’t have to measure the water. But I still had to shut the chickens in for the night, so I went out just a bit before dusk. Joy of joys, I heard the wonderful flutter of the woodcock in my neighbor’s field. Exhaustion forgotten, I went over and listened to three rounds of its courtship calls. It sits on the ground puffs out its chest and sends out a loud peent. Then it flies in a rapid spiral high into the air, out of sight. Soon it falls to the ground with a soprano sound of wings fluttering in the wind, to then land and begin again. It usually lands in about the same place, so we humans that want to witness it can oft times run to where we heard the peent and sit until it lands nearby. However, I seem to be around smart woodcock as they will not land near me. I once went out with my sister and some of her naturalist friends. We hunkered down, pinpointed the call and when it flew we all ran to the spot. When the bird landed we heard its peent, right where we had been; it had outwitted us for sure. Tomorrow, I will go out again, I have a meeting but hope I can make it before it is too dark to be able to see the woodcock in flight.