October's "Woodcock Moon"

[Dean Romig]

On October 27th we will experience the full moon of the month and it's the one I like to call the "Woodcock Moon."
Legend and lore has it that the greatest migration flight of woodcock from the Maritime Provinces and Downeast Maine will be riding the air currents to warmer climes. I intend to be there to intercept them on Saturday morning, the 31st (weather permitting) high on our "Scrubapple Hillside" in Vermont. I was there last Sunday and found not a single woodcock feather, but immediately after the Woodcock Moon in most of the recent years we have found them there. Not always in significant numbers like we found them three years ago but numbers enough to provide hope and to know we haven't been forsaken by the 'Red Gods' of autumn. I just know we'll do better with Grace this year. She got a snootful of woodcock last year and even found one I thought I had marked down forty feet from where she pinned it.




.Photo courtesy of Patsy D'Agata 2015

[John E. Williams]

Dean, I am torn up like a jar of kraut over this event! I get like that every year and consider October's full moon as being the most significant of them all. I'll be trolling the coverts during the following days and I hope all of us who are looking get blessed with at least a few birds this year. Best of luck to you!

[chazcole]

I'll be leaving for Wisconsin tomorrow and hunting through the 28th so hopefully I'll get into a flight! Best of luck to you Dean!

[allan.mclane]

Last Sunday I hunted a couple of the alder bottoms here in SEVT with three friends. Without benefit of a dog we moved 7 birds and took 1. That's not a big bag but the experience was worth every moment: the successful shooter was a twenty-something on his first visit to a woodcock cover.

The weather over the next week is forecast to be warmer than normal but I think the frosty mornings recently have given the birds a nudge.

[Dean Romig]

Allan, there's a certain Parker sixteen-bore hammergun in your arsenal that is the perfect woodcock gun :whistle:





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[allan.mclane]

Allan, there's a certain Parker sixteen-bore hammergun in your arsenal that is the perfect woodcock gun :whistle:


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Dean, I have yet to see that firsthand but it does work on dove:

44507

[Gary Laudermilch]

Not trying to start an argument or dampen your feathers but research results posted on the RGS site says that the moon plays no part in the migration. It is all about the weather up north. Although I seldom target woodcock I'll be hitting my favorite woodcock cover this week. Just in case the researchers are all wet. Good luck!

[Dean Romig]

I'm sure that the biologists employed by the RGS do everything they can to dispel "Legend and lore" but is has been my experience that a larger number of woodcock seem to alight in my stompin' grounds immediately following a full moon late in October or early November. Whether this has coincided with some sort of weather phenomenon, I never noticed but generally speaking if the weather was severe enough in Maritime Canada or Downeast Maine to cause a mass migration, I can assure you that them "Little Russet Fellers" kept right on flying well beyond my coverts. :cheers:





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[John E. Williams]

Being mostly nocturnal, it's easy to draw the conclusion that heaviest woodcock migrations would occur around the full moon. I'm sure weather plays an important role, as does the shortening or lengthening of the days. Still, I've witnessed this correlation often enough over the years to mostly ignore what RGS researchers post on the internet. They also claim the ruffed grouse is essentially extinct in Indiana and got the hunting season suspended this year, yet I flushed two of them last week within a mile of each other.

[Rick Losey]

be it moon (I like the romance of the idea) weather or Halloween witchcraft

bring on the migration- never saw it last year, and so far its the locals this year

just back from the covers - 66 degrees at the top - 72 in the valley

nearing 140 years old - this is first bird for me with the old Henri Pieper

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=576&pictureid=7419

and one very hot dog- no bun needed - two creeks in the area and I think he drained them both

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=576&pictureid=7417

[JeffTowner]

Hit early flight birds in Northern Minnesota two weeks ago. Pretty easy limits 4 days in a row. Last weekend only saw local birds at our camp in northern Lower peninsula Michigan. Now in North Dakota hoping the weather stays warm and the birds stay put until I get home. Pheasants and sharptails are proving cooperative for the Setter. Hungarians not so much...

[Rick Riddell]

Dean where in Downeast are you heading? We've had a ton of birds come through already, I'm hoping this moon and weather will bring more in!

[John E. Williams]

The temp seems to have been falling all day here in north-central Kentucky. That old moon is getting fuller every night, too! I'm dying, here...:rotf:

[Dean Romig]

Dean where in Downeast are you heading? We've had a ton of birds come through already, I'm hoping this moon and weather will bring more in!

I won't be even close to Downeast Maine - I'll be up in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom where, in the elevations I hunt, major woodcock flights are about as dependable as spring peepers in January... but we almost always find a few and we are rewarded every few years by a really good drop. Problem is, as is usually the case with woodcock, you've gotta be there when it happens!






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[Gary Laudermilch]

Well, the moon is here. Moved 30 woodcock in 3 hours yesterday. With two dogs down simultaneously it was a bit hectic at times.

[Dean Romig]

I sure hope they haven't moved on by the time I'm in their coverts on Saturday morning.






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[Mike Koneski]

Yeah, last Monday-Tuesday we moved 42 woodcock in about 4 hours with limits both days. Yesterday and today we moved a total of 3 birds with no shots. I think our flight moved on over to Gary's coverts!! I'll be watching for Dean's report from the Northern Kingdom and plan accordingly. Hope after he gets into them they'll be down with us a few weeks later.

[John E. Williams]

It's been raining all day here, with up to two more inches forecast for tonight. Can woodcock swim?

[Mike Koneski]

Rained so much here today I hope the earthworms can swim!! :shock:

[John E. Williams]

Well, it hasn't rained here in so long that the ground has soaked it up like a sponge! It's still early for flight birds this far south, but it may be worth going afield to probe the locals over the next several days. I'm still so crippled from the back injury that I'm mostly limited to walking 50 yards from the truck, but I may still make it out a time or two before the end of November. Hope you guys are finding some birds!

[Rick Losey]

so - its no longer October - but still have seen no flights for another year, the season ends in a couple days and this is my last chance (the weather is not going to cooperate - high wind warnings Thursday and Friday)

so, today- a rookie mistake - OH Griffin and I managed to pick up a couple and I was on a run with out a miss (never think about this while on a hunt)- Griffin covered an area at least three times with no bird- so I break the gun and get the camera out- about the second picture - up goes the bird he had been looking for.

Drop the camera- recover and close the gun and miss the bird with both barrrels :banghead:

George Bird Evans once said -"for the dog's sake try not to miss the first bird of the year, for your own sake try not to miss the last"

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=576&pictureid=7549

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=576&pictureid=7548

[Dean Romig]

Condolences Rick...

On the bright side - I never even got a shot at a woodcock this season... never even saw one. I missed the flight I'm certain of it. Grace pointed a number of them here at home but on my Vermont hunts - nada.





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[Gary Laudermilch]

A little surprised that I am still finding them here. Moved 8 last Monday in a cover that typically is only good for one or two. The weather has been warm though so maybe the flight birds are taking a long break before continuing their journey.

[Mike Koneski]

Here's hoping these storms and high winds push more birds down to us over the next few days! 20+ MPH winds today and Saturday. All the rain yesterday and snow showers projected for Saturday may help add some to the larder!!

[Rick Losey]

Mike

not sure if 50mph winds out of the south or southwest are going to help with a woodcock migration

if they get up into the wind -they may end up back in New Brunswick

:shock:

[Mike Koneski]

Or Greenland!!!! :whistle:

[Tony Ambrose]

I spent the last two weeks in October in northern NH and central Maine. We got into lots of woodcock, but mostly in NH. We hunted covers that always seem to have an abundance of resident birds. There may have been some flight birds, but by the size and fatness of the birds and their flush patterns, we believed that most were residents. My pointer Pink pointed about 30 one day in NH. Our shooting barely put a dent in the population!!

http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/ac44/hayslope1/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-10/ECBED77B-243D-47B5-A7B9-7A4B32EE133F_zpsdvm9vbtz.jpg

In central Maine the last week of October, we found plenty of woodcock, but nothing compared to what we found in NH. The grouse, however, were another story. While there were many reports of grouse numbers being down in Maine, their numbers in central Maine exceeded our expectations. Many more birds than the last two years!

While not a Parker, this little Fox is a lot of fun!

http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/ac44/hayslope1/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-10/4a4cf634-dc52-44dc-ab83-d0024607b8f2_zpsgo8mbsqs.jpg