American Woodcock

Two Snow Storms in the last week have dropped at least three feet of snow here in South Jersey, which has had a significant impact on our local birds especially ground foraging species.  One of these species is the American Woodcock, normally a very secretive species. Under normal conditions, I would either locate an American Woodcock too late in the day for a decent photograph or only see it as one explosively took off close to my feet. However, knowing that American Woodcock have been forced out of the woods by the deep snows, I drove down to Cape May today hoping to get some decent photographs of one. It seemed like just about any bare patch of over a few square feet harbored some birds, mostly White-throated Sparrows and American Robins, with a few Fox Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, and/or Yellow-rumped Warblers mixed in. Then with just a little more effort, I managed to locate two American Woodcock.