November 13, 2009 - Night Fliers

Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

American woodcock are small brownish birds with plump bodies; large, rounded heads; stubby tails and long, thin beaks. Most of their diet consists of earthworms so as temperatures drop and earthworms go deeper in the soil, food becomes scarce for these birds. That’s when they begin to move south. Woodcock are nocturnal migrants, traveling in short hops of 35 to 100 miles a night. They stop over in forest or bottomland habitat for a day to a week at a time to refuel before beginning the next hop in their journey to wintering sites in the Gulf states. Biologists believe that woodcock follow land features as they travel. Because woodcock have short, rounded wings not designed for long distance flight, their migration is timed to take advantage of north or northwest winds accompanying a cold front. Then they slip away unnoticed.
 
This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.