The warm weather is bringing our an early migration of Woodcock. Pretty little birds about the size of big robin that use this area of Virginia as a staging ground during their spring and autumn migrations.  The birds have  settled in by the thousands

If you’d like to experience something that many people never realize in their lifetimes all you have to do is take the trail down to the pond at the Inn on Poplar Hill: just after the sun has fallen below the horizon and you still have  a nice ribbon of light. ,

The birds make a “peent, peent” sound.  Also described as “beezzt, beeezt” while strutting on the ground.  They’re hard to find  but you’ll hear them.  They make a  whistling oise as the spiral upward out of sight, silence and then you’ll hear a twittering sound as they seemingly crash back to their strutting area to start all over.  You have to position yourself so you’re facing the sunset to profile the birds against the bright evening sky as the fall downward.  It will only last a brief 15 -20 minutes but is truly one of our backyard natural wonders.