Even devoted field study leaves core questions about a common species unanswered

Evidence

It is fortunate, perhaps, that no matter how intently one studies the hundred little dramas of the woods and meadows, one can never learn all of the salient facts about any one of them. What I do not yet know about the sky dance is: where is the lady, and just what part, if any, does she play? I often see two woodcocks on a peenting ground, and the two sometimes fly together, but they never peent together. Is the second bird the hen, or a rival male? … Another unknown: is the twitter vocal, or is it mechanical? My friend, Bill Feeney, once clapped a net over a peenting bird and removed his outer primary wing feathers; thereafter the bird peented and warbled, but twittered no more. But one such experiment is hardly conclusive. — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 128

Categorization

• DEFINE: Models disciplined agnosticism as part of scientific craft — named unknowns and single-experiment caution.
• QUESTION: Woodcock twitter de-wing experiment (n=1) — has later ornithology settled whether the twitter is mechanical feather sound?
• XREF: connects to: Individual plant preferences are transmitted across generations through family memory — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 262; Ecological understanding requires time and holding attention open — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 520

Broader Connections

• Ecological understanding requires time and holding attention open #qualifies (0.75) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 520