Wednesday Word: Timberdoodle

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

Timberdoodle - noun.

You can be forgiven for thinking that a timberdoodle is the latest trendy dog, but its actually a name for Scolopax minor or American woodcock. I'm not sure what the American woodcock did to deserve such a name, but it's also known as a bogsucker or hokumpoke. Who comes up with this stuff??

Anyway, the American woodcock is found in the Eastern half of the United States and it's dull colour gives it excellent camouflage. They thrive in areas with moist soil where they use their long beaks to forage for food.




By guizmo_68 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/7958548@N03/472551926/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.p

Comments

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Cool.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Love it!

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

Glad you do! Stay tuned for more fun words...I bought a Tournament Variety Puzzle book from PennyDell and it had lots of stumpers, like this one.

[full-metal-ox.livejournal.com]

Also known as a snipe: yes, that time-hallowed American Scouting prank had its origins in an actual hunting practice:

https://blog.nature.org/science/2014/01/14/the-snipe-hunt-myth-and-reality/

And this is what it sounds like, with the artistic license of musical accompaniment:

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

LOL, it's funny how you expect some birds to make an epic noise and...they just don't.

[turk-diddler.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

I'm guessing that bogsucker and hokumpoke refer to its feeding habits, hokumpoke in particular because they tend forage in poor soil habitats, literally poking their beaks into what must seem like worthless earth to anyone wants to farm it.