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March 17, 2017
If You See a Woodcock … Help!
Feeling a bit embarrassed about my American Woodcock video of the other day, although I filmed looked healthy, because….
This from The Raptor Trust on Facebook:
Winter Storm Stella – Tough on Birds.
With the unusually warm weather in February and early March, many
migratory birds returned to our area early. Then Stella arrived.
Particularly hard hit has been the American Woodcock. This Nerf football
of a bird eats a diet almost entirely made up of earthworms.
With this hard snow cover, Woodcocks are starving, failing and in
distress in huge numbers. In the last 48 hours we admitted more
Woodcocks at The Raptor Trust than in the entire 2016 calendar year.
If you find one of these rotund worm-eaters, please do everything you can
to get it into a box quickly, keep it warm, and get it to a licensed
wildlife rehabilitator as soon as possible.
Having just returned from their wintering grounds in the Southern United
States, the Woodcocks arrive in our area thin, stressed and very hungry
after hundreds of miles of in-flight migration. That they have arrived
to find no food has compounded the problem for them.
Again, if you find a struggling Woodcock, please do what you can to get
it to a wildlife rehab facility.
We appreciate your help!"
4 comments
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There are three woodcocks on a neighbors lawn, on the only available patch of grass in the area, they look very cold and no one answers the phone when I call the local wildlife rescue and I have no worms to feed them and cannot find any information on line on what to do, which is very frustrating.
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I am so sad and upset about this…I left my garage door open by mistake the night after Stella, and I awoke to banging noise…went into the garage to find this bird, which my dogs chased into the house…I managed to let it outside through a door…then went back into the garage and there was a second bird, which I also let out the garage door…I tried to identify the bird in my Sibley glide, with no luck…I just read the article in the NYT…I feel terrible about those poor birds…
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There is an article in the New York Times today about woodcocks, their plight post winter storm Stella, and efforts by the Wild Bird Fund to rescue some birds–“An Early Bird Caught in the Snowstorm” 3/18/2017.
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Don’t feel embarrassed. Your bird seemed fine- it gave no sign of being distressed. They do come into the open when there’s snow cover. No one could have imagined this would happen. (Reports of birds “falling out of the sky, etc.) This event is a good teaching moment for all of us. At MCAS, we were supposed to have a walk on Sunday, but I’m leaning towards cancelling. It’s a great opportunity to teach birding ethics and help people realize how climate change is real.
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4 comments
kathy
There are three woodcocks on a neighbors lawn, on the only available patch of grass in the area, they look very cold and no one answers the phone when I call the local wildlife rescue and I have no worms to feed them and cannot find any information on line on what to do, which is very frustrating.
Betsy
I am so sad and upset about this…I left my garage door open by mistake the night after Stella, and I awoke to banging noise…went into the garage to find this bird, which my dogs chased into the house…I managed to let it outside through a door…then went back into the garage and there was a second bird, which I also let out the garage door…I tried to identify the bird in my Sibley glide, with no luck…I just read the article in the NYT…I feel terrible about those poor birds…
Jim Riley
There is an article in the New York Times today about woodcocks, their plight post winter storm Stella, and efforts by the Wild Bird Fund to rescue some birds–“An Early Bird Caught in the Snowstorm” 3/18/2017.
Lisa Ann Fanning
Don’t feel embarrassed. Your bird seemed fine- it gave no sign of being distressed. They do come into the open when there’s snow cover. No one could have imagined this would happen. (Reports of birds “falling out of the sky, etc.) This event is a good teaching moment for all of us. At MCAS, we were supposed to have a walk on Sunday, but I’m leaning towards cancelling. It’s a great opportunity to teach birding ethics and help people realize how climate change is real.