Country diary: A nesting woodcock is the ultimate acceptance of our wildlife garden

Allendale, Northumberland: We've got used to her movements over the past few months - and, it seems, she's got used to usFlying fast and low down the gravel path, the bird disappeared round the corner of our house. Maybe it was a sparrowhawk from the blurred impression of brown bars. I followed quietly, but there on the terrace wall was a female woodcock, Scolopax rusticola, the UK's only woodland wading bird, and quite a surprise.Later on I saw her again, standing by the terrace bench in cryptic leaf-litter plumage. I thought her the most beautiful bird I had seen. Undulating waves of chestnut, umber, bronze and mahogany marked a rounded body, methodical in symmetry like the wings of a moth. Deep brown and sandy triangles that somehow also looked random. A straw-coloured breast striped by rusty bars. Three pale lines across a dark brown head, long straight bill for probing and gleaming black eyes. Strange eyes set far back on the head for 360-degree vision - often the only thing noticeable when a woodcock lies camouflaged in woodland. Continue reading...