Have You Heard One?

Trail Wood #22.09 by Earl Plato

Writer’s note: It was in the evening dusk on a road in Wainfleet Marsh that I heard the unmistakeable notes of a special February bird. Edwin Teale describes those sounds as only he can..
“ Evening comes-we are waiting in the dusk to watch once more the spectacle that has accompanied the end of recent days. We hear the whistle of wings, we catch sight of a chunky form with a long, down tilted bill lifting from the darkened meadows. We follow it it up and up as in wide, speeding circles it climbs into the still glowing sky. We stand with heads thrown back watching it diminish in size. We strain our ears to catch the beginning notes of that sweet, twittering warble” -
Writer’s note I recall those sounds. Of what?
“ the flight song of a woodcock. … it whirls like a gust-blown leaf, tilting and veering with such sudden changes we have difficulty keeping it in our glasses. The air is filled with he beauty of its song.