Several years ago during the Atlas project, I discovered displaying woodcocks on the golf course, but haven't been back since to see if they were still there.  After reading about so many recent sightings, I decided this evening to go see if I could get them there again.  I turned off 16th St. at Tuckerman, which ends almost at once against a fringe of wood and then the golf course.  As it got dark, I thought I could hear twittering, but not peenting, and decided to climb the slope ahead of me, figuring it to be too dark for flying golf balls by then.  Sure enough, as soon as I was up on top, I could hear lots of peent calls, but not any distinct sounds of a display flight, much less see one, unfortunately.  A dog walker came along, from the other side of the course, which probably didn't help.  Still, they are definitely there, and I remember from before, it may take more than one trip to actually spot one of the displayers--they wait til it's pretty dark.  I was glad I  took a flashlight for the short walk back thru the deceptively tiny strip of woods; it's very easy to miss the trail and end up in tangles, I found!

Patricia Wood
Silver Spring

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