Woodcock are lurking under brambles and bracken in the woods. There are more of them now than there were in summer, since they have been streaming in from Finland and Russia. With their rich, mottled plumage like dead leaves, they are almost impossible to detect. You usually see them when you stumble over one of them, or a dog puts one up from cover. They break noisily through the thorny brambles, and zigzag for a short distance, then drop again. At night they move out into damp fields and probe for worms, detecting them with the sensitive tip of their long beak. Ornithologists have found and trapped them by sweeping a spotlight round an area where they are known to feed, and seeing it glitter in their eyes. These are almost on the top of their head, and they can see backwards with them. The arrangement suits them very well, since they have no need of their eyes to find their worms.