What will happen next. I was on my way to Augusta for a meeting at the fish and wildlife department. I always go the back way out past Sweetgrass Winery and down over the Medomak River. I came to a stop at the bottom of the hill and could see what looked like a pile of feathers in the road. A car coming the other way stopped quickly and backed up to the pile. Easing forward I could see now that it was a woodcock. But something still did not look right. I got out of the Sequoia and could see that she had chicks with her and that they all were resting in the middle of the road. The chicks about the size of two cotton balls were certainly cute. Not such a good idea, the road is not very busy but still busy enough. Woodcock are precocious which means that the young leave the nest as soon as they hatch spending their days with the hen feeding in the woods on bugs worms and such.
Camera in hand I walked slowly toward the little family thinking that they would all run off to the side of the road. Instead the hen flew off doing a superb broken wing display. Leaving the little fluff balls in the middle of the road. Holding perfectly still, a great defense on the forest floor; not so much in the middle of the hot top!
Since they were all still I was able to pick them up and move them off of the road hoping that the hen would quickly return to her family. As I walked up from the rivers edge a hawk appeared in one of the nearby trees. Clearly the cars were not the only concern. I left the other driver standing guard, telling him that as long as he stood nearby pretty likely the hawk would not get his way and there was a good chance the hen woodcock would return.
When I came back through a few hours later there was no sign of the earlier excitement of any of the participants.
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