Woodcock at Alton Jones

At least a few times every year, I get off the ridge to travel to a magical place known as the W. Alton Jones campus, URI's environmental education center and outdoor research lab in very rural West Greenwich, Rhode Island. I spent time there as an undergraduate some 40 years ago, and I returned fairly often as a reporter to cover the science that profs were doing. Now, as a naturalist and geezer, I'm asked back to provide inspiration, knowledge, and maybe comic relief to the current crop of environmental educators, a uniformly knowledgeable and inspirational group. On the walks I lead, we always find something great, and on today's journey through the mists, one of the sharp-eyed teachers located a mystery bird. It was an American Woodcock, a very rare find in the daylight. This is the "sky dancer" that delights observers with its remarkable courtship flights at dawn and dusk in the spring, but when it's in the air, about all you see is a long-billed silhouette. This is what it looks like on the ground: a cryptic, big-eyed beauty the color of leaf litter. The sighting—and the fact that I could actually get this shot—made me count my abundant blessings.