Timber Doodler!!

With a name like Timber Doodler, what's not to love about American Woodcocks?!

Check out that bill! And the eyes that have rotated to the top and back of the head! What a crazy looking bird!
Again, not a bird we catch every year here, but fortunately for us this year, we caught one. A bird that we catch only on the first net run of the morning (usually about sunrise), these birds are pretty big birds, so they tend not to get stuck in our nets very often.
Notice the tip of the bill. They have the ability to move just the tip of the bill to grab worms while they probe their bills in the ground.
Although they nest here in Virginia, we see a large push of woodcocks into the area about the first part of November.