Eurasian Woodcock in North America

[Dean Romig]

In the last ten or twelve years I have become very curious about this possibility due to the rare times I have flushed woodcock while hunting that are decidedly larger and darker with more pointed wings than those normally seen/shot.

The first time was about 12 years ago when Dave and Danny Suponski, Jamie and I were hunting together and Danny flushed one toward me. I was shocked by it’s size, speed and straight flight line as well as how much darker it was. Needless to say, the fact that I was somewhat rattled, I missed...

But about once every couple of years I encounter this phenomenon again and always seem to either not for various reasons or when I do shoot, I miss. It’s like the prize chartruese clay that wins you a free round - these woodcock are just as ‘unhittable.’

Last weekend in Vermont on that same “scrubapple hillside” where I have encountered them before, I had four flushes of this unusual woodcock and I never had an open enough or close enough opportunity to even get a shot off.

I know I would need to actually have one in hand to determine taxonomically exactly what it is and I suspect it will be too late for woodcock when I get back up there on the first full weekend in November.

Has anyone else had this experience with larger, darker and faster woodcock here on this continent?

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