
← Project Upland Podcast30 May 2025 · 34 min
A 140-year-old Woodcock Exposed an Eco Villain
A 140-year-old Woodcock Exposed an Eco Villain
How an 1885 dissection unraveled a hidden story about invasive worms and the migration routes of the American woodcock in North America. In 1887, Frederick Webster, a taxidermist from Washington, D.C., wrote a short article in a scientific journal. In it, he described dissecting a woodcock from Martha’s Vineyard that had a crop filled entirely with ferns. Why did this woodcock stray from its usual diet of invertebrates? A.J. and Gabby, hosts of the Project Upland Podcast, search for the answe...