The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the phenological patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. To have the Daily Bucket in your Activity Stream,visit Backyard Science’s profile page and click on follow.
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I was checking recent bird sightings from the Mississippi Ornithological Society’s page and saw that a friend of mine had reported seeing and hearing Woodcocks at her home. Andrea Walker lives 8 miles from me so I drove over to talk with her.
She described every detail of where the birds were (when she saw them) and had plans to document them last night (she had another birder coming to help verify the event).
I decided to observe as well. We all were thrilled to hear the birds when they started calling late in the evening. I am thrilled that these were lifers for both women.
I didn’t get the quality audio I wanted but formed a plan for today to gather better film.
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Original film replaced with video below.
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I set my tripod up at 4am under an almost full (waning) moon. I moved away from the machine during recording to get better sound. The video represents the firs hour of filming.
The second half of the film are the sounds a Woodcock makes with it’s wings while “dancing” around to attract a mate and when to flight (another part of the mating ritual) begins. I don’t have the equipment to film under such low light but would love to have the video of these gestures.
I had to modify my youtube video to include the “Aggressive cackles” that males make when challenging over a female of territory. Here is the 1:26 minute revision.
I am happy that Dominique Lalonde was able to capture video of this excellent moment and create a film of his efforts. I hope you enjoy the 3:40 minute film he took in 2019.
We didn’t need a “dark bucket day” when so much life is available.