24 May 2025
On Thursday I wrote about the Pitt peregrine banding on 21 May — see story & photos here — but I did not include a photo of the unusual prey item Patti Barber found at the nest. It was the skull of an American woodcock (Scolopax minor), a “timberdoodle.”
I have never seen a woodcock in the city and certainly not in Schenley, the nearest park to Pitt’s campus. Schenley’s habitat is not suitable for woodcocks but they do court, and therefore breed, at North Park’s Upper Field.
In spring and fall American woodcocks migrate at night, passing over the City of Pittsburgh on their way.
I imagine this one was flying above the Cathedral of Learning one night when the peregrines saw it lit by the building lights and flew up to get it. Yes, peregrines do hunt at night if there’s abundant prey and enough light to see it.
At study published in 2006 documented peregrines hunting at night at the Empire State Building and in 2019 Jeffrey Ward took a video of one hunting in the 911 Tribute Lights in New York City. See the details at the links below:
- NOCTURNAL HUNTING BY PEREGRINE FALCONS AT THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY
- Urban Observation of the Week: Peregrine Falcon Hunts in the 9/11 Tribute Lights
So what about this unexpected prey item?
The Cathedral of Learning is lit on the nights after sports victories by Victory Lights similar to the 911 Tribute Lights. In October 2018 I wrote about the Victory Lights’ deadly attraction for migrating birds and within two weeks Pitt had a plan to cycle the lights every hour to break to spell they cast on migrating birds.
If this woodcock was attracted to the Victory lights the lights would have cycled and released him within the hour. But with three hungry mouths to feed, the peregrines didn’t wait that long. 🙂
I’ve seen a woodcock inside the city limits. Back in March 2022 we encountered one by chance while walking in Calvary Cemetery, in a little patch of wet low-lying trashy trees behind Braywood Way. We were astonished!
Wow!
Interesting. I found the remains of a Woodcock (I still have the skull somewhere!) on the roof of Kings College Cambridge in the UK – it had been eaten by one of the resident peregrines. I was surprised as they aren’t common city birds there either, and figured it was probably a migrant. There’s also footage from a Webcam from elsewhere in the UK of a peregrine bringing in a live Woodcock after hunting at night. https://www.birdguides.com/news/video-footage-from-derby-cathedral-is-a-world-first-in-showing-night/
It makes me think perhaps Woodcock is a more common prey item for peregrines than you’d expect!
Did the males blue band fall off? I think I can see it in the scrap back.
No, the male’s color band is green. The blue band at the nest is from a prey item, a banded northern flicker. Ted Nichols reported seeing it arrive at the nest for a feeding.
While walking at Churchill Greenway this am, we ran into someone who was telling about American Woodcocks out there performing the mating display!