A spring twilight spectacular
On a spring evening in 1966, biologist Al Geis took Columbia, Maryland’s founder, Jim Rouse, to a clearing in the woods. They hunkered down. As the embers of daylight faded, they witnessed the acrobatic, shuffling, twittering showcase of the American Woodcock’s courtship display. Rouse, the innovative designer of this new suburban community between Baltimore and Washington, was so inspired that he preserved an extra 500 acres of open space in Columbia’s footprint. That tract is now permanently protected in what became the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area.
Fifty years later, I joined 10 other birders in Patuxent River State Park, west of Columbia, on a similar mission. The wide, mowed horseshoe-furrowed trail allowed our group to easily reach the site where we suspected woodcocks would show. The evening program, coordinated by Columbia’s Robinson Nature Center, was entitled “Timberdoodles in the Gloaming.” Gloaming is a synonym for twilight, and “timberdoodle” is the most popular of the many nicknames the American Woodcock has earned since colonial times. No one knows the name’s exact origin, though program leader David Cummings of the Howard County Bird Club has an idea. “Maybe the name ‘doodle’ comes from the way he’s shuffling around when he’s doing
