Comments on Julie Zickefoose: Timberdoodle Time

Women, wise that they are, wouldn't waste their ti...

2008-06-04T05:04:00.000-05:00

Women, wise that they are, wouldn't waste their time making a statement in the forest. Knowing perfectly well that the forest wouldn't provide the answer to that age old question, "does this dress make me look fat."

"Cyberthrush, a thousand apologies for excluding y...

2008-06-02T13:33:00.000-05:00

"Cyberthrush, a thousand apologies for excluding you from the male roll call..."

no apology required (I never apologize when I get lost and refuse to ask for directions); I'm just embarrassed though to discover that all along I've been reading a 'chickblog!' 8-?

From one of my most brilliantest (male) friends--w...

2008-06-02T13:02:00.000-05:00

From one of my most brilliantest (male) friends--who happens to be right most of the time whether he's in the middle of the woods or standing next to his wife--also my U.P. authority, also a lurker:

Not to nitpick at your lovely ode to the woodcock, and I claim no expertise on the subject of earthworms...BUT. I've read the assertion many times that there were no native North American earthworms, and that every earthworm presently here is a Eurasian import. This never made any sense to me. Why would this be the case? Earthworms, I would think, certainly evolved before plate tectonics produced the split in the land masses. Why would none exist in North America, but be present in Eurasia?

This once perplexed me to the point where I did some research, and I discovered that earthworm species deemed to be native to NA outnumber the imports. It is true, I think, that earthworms were historically absent or present only in low numbers in parts of the upper Midwest and Northeast. My guess is that this resulted from the fact that portions of those regions were in fact scraped down to bedrock, probably eliminating endemic earthworms in those areas. Worms are necessarily very slow colonizers without humans to move them around. This, together with an acid reaction and thin soils not overly hospitable to worms, probably kept the populations very low.

Anyway, I suspect that so long as the woodcock has graced our land, there have been earthworms present for its dining pleasure, though the availablity of that meal would have varied by geographic region. Just my take on the great earthworm controversy.

Zick here--Dang, this is fun. Who knew there'd be so many men out there, all of 'em right for once?

Can grabbers and tuning forks. I really am smitte...

2008-06-02T12:54:00.000-05:00

Can grabbers and tuning forks. I really am smitten with the idea of the prey-detection feature of the tuning fork maxilla.

And I am not picking on da mens.

Okay Julie, you’ve brought another “male” out of t...

2008-06-02T12:19:00.000-05:00

Okay Julie, you’ve brought another “male” out of the wood-work…

Maybe the “bob and weaving” behavior is a male trying to convince his female counterpart that he is not wrong, but actually right! …and the argument was - Male birds ARE more attractive than female birds!!
Hee, hee…

Great post by the way!

Alan

If you've nothing better to do, please read this l...

2008-06-02T10:39:00.000-05:00

If you've nothing better to do, please read this little dissertation on the woodcock's brain, eye placement, and skull.

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/
Auk/v076n01/p0055-p0059.html

I love it. Here's this guy who goes out and shoots three woodcocks,a semipalmated plover, a short-billed dowitcher, a semipalmated sandpiper, and three herring gulls. He removes their skulls, piece by piece, and notes the angle of their brains and the eye placement relative to the brain. He's figuring it out, how the woodcock's crazy eye placement might have evolved. And you wonder what ornithologists do all day.

Lucky, lucky you are to have gotten pictures. I l...

2008-06-02T10:23:00.000-05:00

Lucky, lucky you are to have gotten pictures. I love the dance in the air, and the sound when it lands. A delightful bird all around.

And from a friend (also male! Yip! Yip!) in PA who...

2008-06-02T10:12:00.000-05:00

And from a friend (also male! Yip! Yip!) in PA who can't comment on Blogger:

Great pictures of the Woodcock! Whoop Whoop!

Praying Mantis also does a head bob thing that is related to distance
estimation (cf: VISUAL DISTANCE DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN STATIONARY TARGETS
IN
PRAYING MANTIS: AN INDEX OF THE USE OF MOTION PARALLAX
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/
reprint/198/10/2127.pdf

Perhaps Mr. WC is just trying to make sure you are too far away to pounce.
before he can spring.

Also head-bobbing in reptiles may be related to distance estimation:

"Many agamids and iguanids "head-bob"when other lizards approach their
territories, and hcad-bobbing has also been described in the Australian
skinks Eulamprus kosciusko(Done and Heatwole, l977a) and Egernia inornata (Webber, l97B)' although without interpretation. If this behaviour does
increase visual acuity, the head-bob display seen in agamids and iguanids
may have arisen as a means of gaining better visual information about intruders into an animal's territory."
http://www.bio.usyd.edu.au/
Shinelab/publications/reprints/
118ethogramguich.pdf

My friend Boneman left this comment:Still not havi...

2008-06-02T10:07:00.000-05:00

My friend Boneman left this comment:

Still not having any luck getting Blogger to accept my comments. The wonderful weirdness of woodcock skulls goes deeper than just being able to manipulate the tip of their beak. The maxilla (unlike any other bird I know) never fuses, with the result that the two halves are just held in place by the keratin sheath of the rhamphotheca. It looks like a tuning fork and I have wondered if it might not work like a tuning fork to detect vibrations of prey.

Zick back again: How cool is that? So you've got two long thin bones running down the woodcock's upper bill, not connected, just held together by the soft skin of the ramphotheca. What a lovely thought, that it acts like a tuning fork, transferring minute vibrations up the bill.Thanks, Boneman! I see you're above the "man in the forest" fray.

I am still trying to see my first woodcock, but no...

2008-06-02T10:04:00.000-05:00

I am still trying to see my first woodcock, but now I know a lot more about them! Thanks.

What great photos! In Alabama the woodcocks are he...

2008-06-02T07:47:00.000-05:00

What great photos! In Alabama the woodcocks are here in the wintertime. We see thier crazy spiral-y flights in January (or usually, hear them). In February I almost had several heart attacks when they saw me before I saw them... they flush rather explosively!

Cyberthrush, a thousand apologies for excluding yo...

2008-06-02T06:22:00.000-05:00

Cyberthrush, a thousand apologies for excluding you from the male roll call. You have opposable thumbs and I unthinkingly grouped you in with the more loquacious half. ;-P

Science, humor, non-sequiturs, and pics of a dappe...

2008-06-02T06:19:00.000-05:00

Science, humor, non-sequiturs, and pics of a dapper gentleman all in one post... doesn't get any better than this.

Da Laydeez is gangin' up on da men. Warning, blogg...

2008-06-02T05:51:00.000-05:00

Da Laydeez is gangin' up on da men. Warning, bloggrrls. Though it appears that this is a chickblog, there are men lurking here. I have seen their tracks and scat, though they are as elusive as wolves.
Tim, Mojo, Monarch, both of you other guys... stand up for your rights.

Yes indeed, he'd be wrong. ;c)Very neat bird, tha...

2008-06-02T05:33:00.000-05:00

Yes indeed, he'd be wrong. ;c)

Very neat bird, that woodcock.

"If a man made a statement in the middle of a fore...

2008-06-02T01:04:00.000-05:00

"If a man made a statement in the middle of a forest without a woman to hear him, would he still be wrong?"

lol! I've read that before but it still kills me.

I learn so much from your posts. I guess with almost 360 vision, it would be tough for a woodcock *not* to know you were watching it. I hope I get to see one someday, and that it bobs for me :)

Of course he'd still be wrong.I'd love to see a wo...

2008-06-01T21:48:00.000-05:00

Of course he'd still be wrong.

I'd love to see a woodcock - cool bird. I'm so glad you have your camera with you most of the time. I never know what I'll find here when I visit.

Mary

I learn so very much from you. I like the can-gra...

2008-06-01T21:39:00.000-05:00

I learn so very much from you. I like the can-grabber description. What an interesting bird.

I would like to go to the UP some day. I haven't been there since I was a kiddo.