Rachel,

I love watching this aerial show so much myself! It is so neat. All of those sounds he makes when he bebins his spiral upwards,the sounds at the highest point that sounds songbird like,and the sounds you hear on his way back down are made by his wings Rachel. The only sound he makes with his voice is the Peenting sound you described plus the grunting,squawking sound they sometimes do on the ground. I will be watching them again tonight Rachel right off my patio. The martins(I have 10 now)will come in for the night and once they get settled the Woodcocks will start. They are a real treat to see and hear smile...Mike

That would be so cool to watch the aerial show from one's porch!

We just returned from hiking to the top of the mnt and coming back down in the dark (I wore my headlamp, but DB forgot his). This time the sky was clear so the Woodcocks started later. Beautiful sunset, and then the beeping started. As far as we could tell, there was only one male displaying this evening but he did his flight right over us and landed about 20 feet in front of us to beep. I could just barely see him mating with a female, but we certainly heard them. They are so cute the way they glide around on the ground, holding their bodies still while their feet are a blur, making them seem to float.

Their feathers make the twittering sound as they spiral upward (as I mentioned in my first post), but they make the chirping sound with their voices as they descend.

The stars came out while we were watching the Woodcocks mate, so when the show abruptly ended we were surprised to look up and see the sky crammed with stars, including Mars almost overhead in Gemini, the Twins. We also saw 2 meteors so we might have an early Lyrids Meteor Shower show, or late Y-Normids. DuBois set up the screen tent by the horse pasture now that the rain has stopped so we should have a great view tonight..hopefully hear some owls, too!

Rachel,

Sounds wonderful! Nothing like the stars and all on a great night smile..Oh..The Woodcock makes all of the sounds with his wings Rachel. All of them..Even when he is coming back down those sounds you haer are made by what is called tyhe winnowing of the wings. None of this is vocal at all. The chirping sound you hear is made by his wings just like the little songbird like song at the very top of the spiral. I watched them again tonight Rachel! They are neat and now I have 12 martins. Picked up a couple of more today in the nice weather..In another month there will be over 100 martins here and by mid May well over 200...Mike

It's been raining here since I last posted, but seems to be clearing up enough to go back to watching the Woodcock aerial displays

Mike, here's a link to pdf file with information on the sounds made by the American Woodcock male during aerial displays

http://www.mn.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/ecs/wild/woodcock.pdf
one from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/BOW/awcock/

The wing feathers make a twittering sound as the bird spirals upward to about 200-300 ft, then it actually chirps and "sings" while zig-zagging back down.
It would be so great to be able to watch them display from my porch, though.

Do Purple Martins keep other yard birds away? I've heard people claim that if you intend to have regular bird feeders and yard birds, don't host Purple Martins