Where are the Woodcock?

      Every spring we wonder where the woodcock are.  Are they headed north yet? 

Woodcock splash, 
A sure sign they are 
around.

Then come bird hunting season we wonder if “the flight birds” are in? 
      In the spring the old timers will tell you the woodcock arrive about the same time as the robins. “They eat the same thing” is what I have always heard. That means earthworms. And usually that is about right. The woodcock arrive early, while there is still snow on north facing slopes and in the shadows. So do the robins.
      About a week ago our yard was inundated with robins. A dozen cluttered the lawn over by the woodshed. Twice that number were in the field toward the vegetable garden. Leaves still cling to one tree in our yard, a weeping crabapple, and constantly the robins were flying in and out of its thick foliage. It seemed they were everywhere,
      The next hunt, in the old cuttings up high on a hill, I found an abundance of woodcock.