The very long beak shows up well in the photograph

one of the spin-offs of the article I wrote in this Highland Wildlife recently prompted three readers to email me and all attached photographs. They had been fortunate to see a woodcock feeding in their garden and in all cases during the day.

One was at Abriachan, another at Roy Bridge and the other near Contin. The photograph from one of these readers is shown here where the bird is just feeding on grassland and, in each case, close to the house.

Because it is a close-up it may look easy to see but believe me “in the field” this is just not the case. That blend of dark and light brown is so much camouflage you can walk past one and, if it does not move, it will go undetected.

The very long beak shows up well in the photograph and this is the means by which it finds its food, as it has a special adaptation. When it probes deep into the soil the sensitive nerve endings at the end of the beak locate its prey, from spiders to beetles and worms to caterpillars.

I contacted the three readers concerned and said it would be well worth them looking out at dusk to see if the woodcock were breeding nearby. We may think of birds of the night such as tawny owls and even grasshopper warblers singing but the woodcocks’In home display at dusk and after is memorable by any standards.

It is the famous display of the males that is the highlight. This is to attract females into its breeding territory, warn off other males or to reassure its mate sitting on her four eggs in the mere scrape of a nest on the woodland floor.

During his display the male flies slowly, and I mean slowly, on its huge broad wings along a pre-determined route. This display is called “roding” which I have always presumed is because it often takes place along woodland rides which in other countries are often called rodes.

During this flight the males are uttering the strangest of calls that have been variously described as frog or toad-like croaks. I jest not, and when you hear one for the first time you will know what I mean!

All this may sound almost mysterious but there is more to come as it is the birds’ migration that has caused a great deal of the recent interest.

The birds migrate at night and although most Scottish breeding birds are resident all the year round there is an influx of birds from northern Europe in October and November.

There are all sorts of ideas – some of them myths – about the right weather conditions to make the birds move from the continent.Home energy monitor  One fascinating theory regards the tiny bird, the goldcrest.

One local name for the goldcrest is “woodcock pilot” as this tiny bird, that boosts the local numbers for the winter, is supposed to come in two days before the  woodcock flies in – hence the expression “woodcock pilot”, as if the goldcrest is showing it the way to fly in. With either bird, nothing would surprise me.

Some of the incoming woodcock stay in the woods along with the resident birds  but, if the weather is bad, they will move on to the south and west.    

The status of the woodcock in the UK is still open to debate. It is on the quarry list and so it is widely shot and much prized by sportsmen. Their flight is very erratic that make them a target for many people.

There is a saying “a left and a right” for woodcock as this is reputed to be the final accolade if you can shoot one with one barrel and another with the other virtually at the same time.

There are those who say the bird is over-shot, Home energy management especially in European countries, but there is no proof of this. Changes in their breeding habitats may well have more effect that has resulted in their decline.

Welcoming the swift return of swallows and martins to River Ness

Record of the week must be some magic moments on the River Ness in the middle of Inverness.

At first there seemed to be no birds apart from gulls foraging. Then I realised there were lots of small birds flying just above the surface. Fortunately I had binoculars with me and I was able to pick out some detail.

There were just dozens of what are loosely called “swallows”. Most of them were indeed swallows but about a quarter of them were sand martins and I saw at least two house martins.

They are easy to tell apart as the house martins have the characteristic white rump that is conspicuous whilst the sand martin is just a pale brown nearly all over.

The actual swallows look almost black but a closer look reveals the mixture of black and white with a purple sheen, in the right light, and those long tail streamers.

The house martins had come back to their old nests under the eaves of the house a week before, almost two weeks later than usual.