Well I seem to be riffing on hearing and listening so maybe it’s time for a soundscape. Here’s the backstory.

One day when I was a kid living with my family in an apartment on the first floor of a fifteen story apartment building in a housing development in lower Manhattan I was looking out our living room window. There was some grass planted there and a few trees. I saw this really strange bird hopping around in the grass. Surely not the pigeon or sparrow or even the occasional robin or starling I was used to. I got all excited and called my mother over. She got all excited too. Neither of us had any idea what it was or what it could possibly be doing in downtown Manhattan. It had a long needle like beak, a round belly, longish legs and the funniest bobbing walk you could ever imagine. My mother called the Audubon Society (no Google then folks) and they told her it sounded like what we were seeing was a woodcock. That was my introduction to (New York City style urban) birding….

Fast forward five decades or so and here in Vermont I still love birding and I have always had a special affection for the woodcock. Every spring at dusk I go out searching for woodcocks hoping to catch a glimpse of their awesome mating dance. The problem is, they’re really hard to see at dusk. So here is a video that is basically a soundscape, not much to see. You might just want to close your eyes and listen. See if you can catch the “peenting” of the woodcock or the winnowing of the snipe. Those are both sounds they make with their wings while doing their mating dances. Sit back, relax and enjoy.