Woodcock observations
 

This year marks Werden's second full hunting season here in CT. Last year for one reason or another we hit the woods late in search of the elusive woodcock to never locate even one. Given the fact I am a forest manager, I often stumble upon resident birds during the spring and summer. This year I decided to check out a Wildlife Management area I often drive by and never see a soul there. I took a walk mid May and found to my surprise an abundant number of resident birds in this area. And when I say abundant, I mean dozens! I found these birds on the edge of a wetland with a beautiful transition of tall wetlands grasses to huckleberry and beech whips to mature timber. They seemed to stay in this area as I visited often with the dog to help him identify and recognize the scent of the woodcock and to learn not to crowd them. Our visits where usually short as I didn't want to drive these natives away from the ground they seemed to thrive on. I must mention that within 70 yards of this habitat is a 4 acre field. This field was abandon long ago but was most likely mowed down within the past 10 years. It has red cedar, high bush blueberry, huckleberry, autumn olive, and alder throughout. On a few of our visits during the summer I would walk the edges of this field and to never flush one bird, only rabbits. I never even tried to penetrate the field as the bull briars are so entangled with everything else growing there, it is seemingly impossible.

Fast forward to this past Monday, opening day of Woodcock and Snipe in CT. After work about 4:00, we headed to this honey hole. I felt confident we would walk out with woodcock(s) in hand by dusk. And we left empty handed. Not a dam bird. I sat in bed that night thinking there is no way they have vacated already. It has been in the mid and upper 60's. The foliage is still on so the cover isn't blown. Confused as to what was going on we showed up Wednesday to take another crack at it. And again..nothing. I decided we we walk the field edge to see if they had shifted slightly closer to the field. Not 1 bird. the dog never even got "birdy".

I decided to take a break and we would head back Saturday morning. We show up and as usual, nobody is in the parking lot. I decided we where going to head right in the the thick of it! No paths, just brush up to my chin and bull briars that will pierce the best chaps. As Werden begins to navigate his way through the thickest cover he has ever seen there is an explosion of woodcock flying in every direction within this hell of briars and brush. These birds flushed between 25-30 yards from us. I couldn't believe my eyes! He comes back to me with a very confused look. I tell him, find the birds! He turns and heads back. Given the age of the growth, he is able to navigate better then I underneath and make his way around some what.

Why did these birds move to these thick cover? Did predators push them I thought to myself? We do have an abundant population of Bobcats and Fishers. But why did they stay in the easier cover all summer and now move to the thickets? Food supply? No. While I was walking around through the summer grounds Wednesday I kicked up the ground liter and there was a plethora of earthworms. I am perplexed by this move.

Back to the hunt. After a few minutes I hear Werden stop, not a sound. He is on point I thought! I look at my GPS receiver to get an idea where he was. As I make my way though the worst thicket I have ever seen I flush up 4 more birds! To shoot or not to shoot? I chose to not as I didn't want to confuse him. As I approach the location I believe he is I realize the birds I flushed where indeed the birds he was pointing. He was at least 6 yards away and I couldn't see him! He immediately gives me the "look" and continues on his search. I decide that I am going to follow him to the best of my ability. All the training and all the practice all year never prepared him, or myself, for what we were experiencing at this point. After less than 5 minutes and 20 feet another bird lifts to the sky and I take the shot and direct hit. The bird falls about 75' from me. Now at this point I am not sure where Werden is or if he even saw the bird fall. I say loudly, fetch Werd! I hear him change direction heading toward the general vicinity of where this bird fell. I decide to head in his direction as I wasn't sure If he saw the bird go down and I didn't want to take my eyes of the spot. As I approached the local (nearly 5 minutes later) there is Werden sitting and looking up. Confused I look around only to find the woodcock stuck in a crotch of a small tree about 6' of the ground. What an experience! At this point I decide that we are going to head back out and take a break to mend our wounds. My arms are bleeding in multiple locations. My legs fell like there are 1000 pins poking me and Werden's mouth is dripping with blood from the briar cuts all over his tongue, mouth, and face. As we approach the field edge and transition back to forest he lies down in exhaustion. It was probably almost 65 degrees with clear skies. I snap a couple pictures and he falls asleep. I decide to call it a success and head home. We WILL be back to visit these masters of the woods. This group of woodcock have to be the smartest woodcock I have ever encountered. They stay in the "easy" woods for the summer and when opening day comes....off to the thickest hell hole on earth!

And one last item, I took this elusive woodcock with my PHE/20/32". So much for needing short barrels in the thick cover!

Here are a few photos of yesterdays adventure.

Briars it is!
 

Awesome! We find them in the nastiest stuff up here in Maine as well!

That's a great story Andy and very well told! (Should have been in Parker Pages)

My guess is that the birds were in the thick briars to keep away from avian predators - bobcats, fishers, foxes and coyotes would get through (under) that stuff as easily as Werden did.





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I agree Dean. Interesting how easily they would flush. I suppose that is a behavior they have developed in the interest of survival. Often times in the open woods they will hold tight and I can walk right by and never notice them until the dog points a bird right where I've been. Nature provides entertainment at every turn and yesterday was no exception!

Thanks for posting this! Great dog and Parker!

Thanks for sharing this story, what great pictures. I am looking at full dress garments for my brittany. He is getting so "chewed" up by briars, my wife is in a panic every time I bring him home.

Mr. Clark thank you for a very interesting post. I am very interested in everyones opinions as far as seeing changes in woodcock behavior over the years you have hunted them. I have hunted them for 50 years, intensively for the last 33. In that time they seem to have stopped ''towering'' and now fly close to the ground weaving through the cover. Also they seem to be more prone to flush at a longer distance. I hunt in Maine and the birds have probably seen some pressure before reaching me. Have others seen the same? I have also seen a marked increase in interest in hunting them over the last 10 years.

Daniel, Thank you for your post. I have a few thoughts. It is my experience locally (SE CT) that people are losing interest in hunting woodcock. Every time I venture somewhere new and bump into another hunter they always ask what I am hunting, and it seems my reply always come as a surprise. Yesterday as I put my gun and other belongings away to head home, a State of CT EnCon officer that lives 3 miles from the site I was hunting stopped in to say hello. I asked if he sees anyone ever hunting this Wildlife Management Area, and his response was other than Bow Hunting Deer, no.

Something else interesting that was brought to my attention this morning as I was chatting with a local Wildlife Biologist that manages private land for a local land conservationist was the fact that on Tuesday he was called to the exact overgrown field to respond to a GPS receiver he had put on a Bobcat sometime ago. He is involved in a project the State of CT is running on studying Bobcat behavior. Apparently when the Bobcat stops moving for more than 8 hours the GPS sends a signal. His job is to go find the cat or the collar. In this case the cat was into this area about 75' and seemed to have died from natural causes. This makes me conclude that these particular resident woodcock are more likely to flush due to the bobcats presence. And who knows, maybe the bobcat moved into the area between my visits and the woodcock where forced to head for denser cover!?

Andrew I have found them to be confounding since I started to study them. On migration they will stop in the most unlikely places, if they stay will go to what is ''normal habitat'' They have changed over the years I have hunted them.My covers are less hunted the last few years but I read of the folks in the south discovering them. (Mills) Years ago Evans wrote that they were safe once they passed him,no longer is that true.Very interested to hear of your next hunt. If I remember correctly they are hunted from Sept in Canada till Dec in the south,

First, let me qualify my comments. I am not a woodcock hunter and only rarely do I shoot any, much preferring to concentrate on grouse. However, I find woodcock to be an intriguing bird. Except for winter I have them year round right outside my back door so I encounter them frequently. I also encounter quite a few while chasing grouse.

It is my thought that the birds and the cover they are in is very soil moisture dependent. There is a corner of my property that is a woodcock magnet, usually. If that cover is the slightest bit dryer than normal, no birds will be there even though the soil seems moist to me. Conversely, if it is too wet, i.e. a bit of standing water about, they will not be there. They are pretty darn fussy about where they like to feed. During those times they vacate their normal haunts they can be found in places where they are seldom found.

About 15 years ago I started seeing woodcock run. It surprised the heck out of me initially but now I've come to expect it. Your guess is as good as mine as to what triggered this change in behavior but I'm putting my money on a change in avian predator density. You fly, you die.

It is also my experience that resident birds tend to fly in the zig-zag, close to the ground style. Flight birds tend to tower more frequently. Familiarity of the locality/cover?

Take it for what it is worth, just my two cents. They are interesting little birds.

Yep, as Gary mentioned they run, I noticed that also about 15 yrs ago.
Most of the birds I flushed recently stay low to the ground, I avoid those shots for fear of the dogs. I had on last year sit in the crotch of a tree about 10 feet off the ground watching the dog on point.
I have found Woodcock in mature spruce forests, dry uplands, many different areas than one would expect. Harvested potato fields are popular night resting areas.

Gary my experience similar to yours. I have found them in the middle of a gravel log road 40ft. wide. On spruce hillsides, but the go to place is still the alder seeps and runs, but they can be any where. An old Maine warden is credited with saying '' woodcock are where you find them''. I still expect to find them in odd places. Thank you for the replies and keep them coming.

Actually, woodcock have been discovered in the South for as long as folks in the South have enjoyed eating them and shooting them for sport.

Here Andy Devine, aka “Jingles P. Jones”, and his wife along with Grits Gresham and a friend enjoy hunting woodcock in Louisiana - Andy using his Parker .410 with the beavertail forend. I'll bet he was good with that little gun. I wonder who has it now??

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Thank you, I meant that they were a far second to the game birds like quail.

Very true!





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I've hunted woodcock in Missouri for 32 years. I have also hunted them in Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and Louisiana. There are not many woodcock hunters in the middle of the western portions of their flyway, but as quail populations have diminished, those bird hunters who have kept hunting have started seeking woodcock. We have our own local birds in North Missouri, and I've stumbled upon chicks from March to April depending upon weather conditions.

I've noted here in Missouri that a covert that holds birds headed North is not always one that will host birds migrating in the Fall. I have also seen an increase in birds moving from points. I can't say that I have seen an increase in birds flying lower upon being flushed. That seems to be determined by the cover from which they are flushed in my experience.

The screwy weather of the past several years has made flights much less predictable. Twenty years ago flights peaked around October 31st. Lately, I see more birds around November 7th, but again, the weather is the key.

Certainly the weather, but also as with so many other things in nature, the diminishing daylight plays a significant role in woodcock migrations.

Woodcock in my covers when flushed usually tower to 20-30 feet in height but it usually depends on the cover and the kinds of trees and bushes there. And of course, some do stay low and fly like that escape artist the grouse.





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I have hunted woodcock since 1969, both with and (mostly) without dogs. The remarks by previous posters regarding changes in habitat behavior (e.g., "sideways" vs. vertical flushing, degree of wetness underfoot, and birds flushing further away, and especially running, are all spot on.

In my experience these changes became very noticeably manifest about 15-18 years ago, and in my firm opinion, were greatly exacerbated by the perfection and widespread use of the beeper collar on dogs. Similar to the effect on pheasants of a slamming car door at the edge of a huge Iowa cornfield, my belief is that the tone, frequency, and rhythm of these signals instantly alerts birds and wildlife to the presence of dogs plus humans, which equals 'danger'.

The first manifestation of these phenomena I noticed was the running bird. While grouse hunting, it was always assumed that the bird would take whatever action necessary to stay ahead of/away from the dog and hunter, running being the safest expedient as opposed to flushing, thereby offering the hunter a shot, so years ago it was expected. With woodcock, however, almost never.

Another perspective to consider is that the woodcock is migratory; imagine surviving individual natural hazards (predators, weather) from cover to cover as the bird leaves the Canadian maritimes, for example, then pauses to rest and feed before eventually winding up in Louisiana, South Carolina, of some other southern state at the terminus of its journey. I fully expect that by the second or third encounter in successive covers moving south, these birds recognize these audial signals and immediately go to "red alert!".

What about bells Kevin, that have been in use for considerably more than a hundred years?





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Gary and Kevin thank you for your comments.

I think the electronic collars are worse. When a dog goes on point with a bell, all is quiet, whereas the electronic collar is normally set to beep or screech. We've taught the birds and the fish to modify their behavior in order to survive. I'm convinced that the "Roboduck" which was such a sensation a few years ago, is now a deterrent to decoying ducks

Man walks with a heavy foot

[QUOTE=Dean Romig;284213]What about bells Kevin, that have been in use for considerably more than a hundred years?

A much more refined, gentile sound, Dean - like a bell at a dinner party or consecration at communion time. I believer the birds appreciate it more and act accordingly. By contrast, most dog collars sound like the backup alarm on a dump truck or front-end loader.

Probably true and the traditional use of bells on livestock of all kinds has never posed a threat to them.





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This has been a good thread for me to read (especially not hunting for over 40 years) I hunted the first 4 weeks with no beeper at all. I had some good grouse points where the grouse held the first two weeks. The second two weeks, I noticed more grouse were running. The last week or so I have used the beeper again, I don't think my grouse are holding for the beeper, but its also several weeks into the season. Today, I used no beeper at all, and had several grouse points where they all ran. I am wondering if the first couple weeks with little hunting pressure, they are holding better, then as hunting pressure builds, that might cause more running? I barely get a shot as it is even with leaves down:) but those first two weeks, some grouse held well, but to many leaves for a shot. Today I shot 5 shells and got one woodcock, I think some flight birds have come to our area. I hunted where I don't usually see that many, and there were 5 right along a 2 track in thick poplar slashings.

When I began my training with Werden about 2 years ago I decided no bell or beeper. We hunt with a GPS collar and when he is on point my receiver vibrates. What I noticed was once he witnesses a bird flush well before he caught the scent, he begins to "tip toe" through the brush. He began this behavior this past Tuesday when I brought him back to the WMA we shot the first woodcock in. It's as he remembered how spooky they where and is determined to sneak up on them! It is very interesting behavior that I have never witnessed.

Andrew, I'm confident that you are correct in concluding your dog remembered that place and what happened at it. I have seen similar evidence from my dogs over the years.