# Woodcock casualty in the big city

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodcock-casualty-in-the-big-city/423816>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 24, 2007, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodcock-casualty-in-the-big-city/423816 "2007-10-24T13:55:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodcock-casualty-in-the-big-city/423816/1 "2007-10-24T13:55:36Z")

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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.