Yesterday while counting birds for the Howard County Mid-Winter Count, Jay Sheppard's party had woodcock in two different locations in the Patuxtuent River State Park area. Jay and I had one very cooperative woodcock in our area off Annapolis Rock Road at the horse trailer parking area. Tom Feild and Geraline King enjoyed 5 at the area they staked out on Hipsley Mill Road. Since this area is relatively easy to access by almost anyone, here are the directions:

In Montgomery County on Damascus Road (Rte 650), turn northeast onto Hiplsey Mill Road.

Follow Hiplsey Mill Road and once you cross the Patuxent River, you'll be in Howard County.

Just after crossing the river, you'll emerge out of the trees and see a parking area immediately on the left  (39.268175, -77.114309).

Park here - this is part of Patuxent River State Park and is public land available for your woodcock enjoyment!

Continue walking along the road NE for about 150 feet and you 'll come to a trail on your left.

Walk down the trail, stop in the vicinity of the bottom, wait, listen, and watch.

Sunrise / Sunset for the Laytonsville / Damascus area yesterday (Feb 4th) was:

Begin civil twilight       6:45 a.m.                 
Sunrise                     7:13 a.m.                 
Sunset                     5:32 p.m.                 
End civil twilight         6:00 p.m.  

Five woodcock were heard twittering, chirping, and peenting starting around 6:30 a.m. and everything stopped by 5:50 a.m. So be there an appropriate amount of time before twilight in the morning and evening and you might get to enjoy the spectacle, too.

Note: the same was true for the nearby Annapolis Rock area - also part of the Patuxent River State Park - where woodcock have been found over the years. It is just a longer treck to get to this area as anyone who has ever been there knows! My personal experience at Annapolis Rock. About 6:30 a.m. I had the one woodcock fly directly over my head - if I had longer arms I could have reached out and touched him! He gave quite a show for about 20 minutes. Peenting, taking flight, and zooming around. The last time he landed right on the trail not too far away from us and we were able to see him both with our eyes and in our bins.

You'll see on the various maps online that the trails in this area are extensive. Who knows what you might find! You might even be able to enjoy the Woodcock from the parking area.

FYI Jay Sheppard is leading a field trip for the Howard Bird Club on Feb 18th to the Annapolis Rock area  - get more info at http://howardbirds.org/howard/hcevents.htm.

Good luck!

Marcy Stutzman
Russett, MD


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