Woodcock in the City

stevensi

Hi All,
Had an unusal encounter this morning in work today. I work in the city centre (Dublin) and today while walking to a meeting in Trinity College I saw 4 hooded crows and some magpies attacking a bird on the rugby pitch at the back of the college. I got really close and scared of the crows and to my surprise the bird they were mobbing was a Woodcock. It did look very dazed and every time it attempted to take off a hoodie or magpie would attack. Eventually after much shooing away of the crows the woodcock took off towards Nassau St. Hope it survived.
I have 2 questions which are why would the hooded crows and magpies attack the woodcock (hardly a threat?) also seeing a woodcock in such an area would be unusal? (although i do know that the city centre peregrine falcons here have been known to arrive at their nest with woodcock as prey)
Cheers

boneless

I have encountered snipe in the city on a few occasions; would you think it was a snipe rather than a woodcock?

Hammiepeters

In flight woodcock are so different to snipe so difficult to mistake. My guess and answer to your questions are. 1. Magpies and hoodies will mob and kill anything for a meal not as a threat. 2. It would be rare for this bird to be found in the city. However, being a winter visitor(in some numbers)as well as a resident bird, you can imagine that some distances and weather take a toll on birds. This bird had reached landfall and was most likely exhausted. The involvement of a Peregrine as you mentioned is also a possibility. Perhaps he was injured as he made his way to Bull island , wherever.
But yes to see this bird in such a place is highly unusual. These birds thrive on camulflage, forest and hedgerow floors,etc.

marlin vs

If a bird looks weak the crow's will take advantage of the situation and try and kill it.

stevensi

Hi boneless,

Definetly a woodcock. At first when i saw it i did think snipe but because i got so close to it; no more then two feet it was definetly a woodcock. I actually got a response from a guy i know who is an expert on woodcock and he was saying there was a big fall last week around the country and in fact a woodcock was found in the city also this time last year.

I've come to the conclusion that yes it was exhausted from migrating and decided to land in the college. Unfortunately for the bird there were a lot of hoodies and magpies about...i really hope it survived!

boneless

I was passing RTE campus today on the bus and lo and behold... three woodcock landed in the grassy area beside the set for Fair City!! Look out for them in future episodes !!

stevoman

we had a full moon last week and that has brought the woordcock in. i have seen three year myself. a fine bird. my guess is he just happened to emd up in dublin and that was that. the was mre the likely feeding at the time as the spend most of their time feeding on the ground and my guess is the magpies or greycrows mistaked it fo a dead bird and went for it, as not many ground nesting birds are around dublin city.