It was a great morning for turkey hunting dead still and overcast.
I sat at the base of a large white oak waiting to hear the first gobble of the morning that never came. Guess they didn't feel like gobbling this morning.
Around 9:00am I got up and started to ease around just looking and listening. My first find was a small morel, I thought about GN. Walking on I came up to a fence and a Woodcock, aka. Timberdoodle fluttered out and acted cripple. I've seen this act before from other birds when their protecting their nest or young. So I stood still and just looked and looked and looked. Then I saw them, right at my feet, four little Woodcock chicks! We think we got camo? Three were together and one was just a few inches away. At first I thought there were eight but after getting down a little closer there were only four. They were only about 2" long. Their tails were camoed the same as their heads. I studied them for a long time wishing I had brought my camera. I felt very fortunate, it made my morning!
GS...

I flushed one off the nest last Saturday, it had 4 eggs in it, went back this saturday and all I found was remains of egg shells. Sure hope they hatched and not eaten by preditors.

did you fry them or bake them Kenny?

Awesome find!! I just love that it's often not the turkeys that end up making a spring hunt a memorable experience.

On one hunt, I got down on all fours to crawl up a road to the edge of a field. While I was crawling, I came face to face with a baby box turtle the size of a fifty cent piece munching on a snail. I could have walked right by him & never seen him at all.

Thanks for sharing your story!! Very cool!

Now that was an exciting hunt! Can't beat the spring woods!

I've flushed a few woodcock from their nest, and they do seem sort of injured - they don't go very high or far. Hopefully 1-2 of those little fellas will make it - would love to see woodcock numbers increase.