During the spring and fall folks in Chicago get to see many a bird they normally don’t, as migrating birds tend to hug the lakefront. Unfortunately, most of the birds I see are ones who lost an argument with a skyscraper, and are lying dead on the sidewalks as I walk to work.
It is very common to see small songbirds. Last week I saw a woodpecker. I was was walking through an alley this morning. I usually look about myself as it is not uncommon to encounter a rat, when I saw a large-ish thing on the ground. Getting closer, I could tell it was a woodcock. The long bill and widely positioned eyes were definitive. Tho it had hit a building who knows how high up, and plummted to the ground, it looked essentially unharmed, with no blood. Just a little oddly positioned, but almost capable of springing into the air.
I have often hoped to see a woodcock in the wild, having read countless descriptions of the mating flights. But I have never had that opportunity. And now the first time I’ve seen one that was not stuffed and behind glass, it is crumpled in a city alley, where it will soon be flattened by the many delivery trucks that use that alley daily, before being cleaned up by rats.