Date: 2/22/26 12:55 pm From: SCOTT WEIDENSAUL <000001343b2dd726-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: Clarion Co- first woodcock of the spring last evening ! and a screech owl pair again
Times like this I really miss Pennsylvania. Last week one of our neighbors (transplants from Lancaster County) asked when he should expect to hear woodcock displaying in his pasture. I told him that for the woodcocks’ sake, not before the two and a half feet of snow on the ground melts. Like, maybe May?
Ah well, we had one day today after cleaning up Friday night’s snow and before tomorrow’s nor’easter arrives, so we got in a long snowshoe hike with black-capped chickadees and pileated woodpeckers. Keep posting about the woodcock and grackles and red-winged blackbirds, it gives us exiles in the north hope that winter won’t last forever.
Scott Weidensaul
Milton, NH (formerly Schuylkill County)
> On Feb 22, 2026, at 3:39 PM, Carole Winslow <cjwinslow94...> wrote:
>
> After the past week the ground had thawed and all the snow was gone
> yesterday evening. It was a beautiful calm, clear evening after a little
> afternoon sun, it smelled wonderful and so I went out at dusk just on the
> off chance of hearing the first woodcock. After the pretty brutal winter I
> wasn't really expecting to hear one yet but shockingly, there it was right
> on cue at dusk, twittering up into the evening sky and chirping its way
> down again. If I hadn't heard it twice I might have convinced myself that I
> dreamed it. It's always such a treat the first one I hear, giving me hope
> that spring will indeed arrive. We are missing the blizzard today up here
> and the next week doesn't look so bad, so I think it should manage to
> survive the late winter weather.
>
> Also my female screech owl that spent the winter roosting in the barn
> has survived and the other day a male showed up roosting next to her in the
> barn. Last night one was also calling after dusk. Good news for another
> nesting season ! He looks mostly gray but with some reddish around the
> face and ears so I guess he'd be called a brown morph.
>
> Good end of winter birding,
>
> Carole Winslow
> Sligo, Clarion Co.
