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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[Woodcock survey]

Nothing in nature is impossible, in no way am saying what you saw is not a European woodcock.
In the late stage of migration is when the adult females come and they are larger and darker than the early migrants which start with the juvenile males first then progress until the adults in the last stages.
I have done the F&W wing survey for 30 years and have kept the report on age and sex of the wings i and my son send them and it bears this out.
When we hunt after Nov 1 we try and not shoot these obviously larger birds knowing they are sucessfull breeders but are not always able to tell in thick cover.
You may find that right now in the area of Vermont you hunt that it is the tail end and the ones you will find will be the large females.
There are a number of good sources of information online giving info on sexing and aging the birds you take and it is very interesting to do so. All the birds taken our first trip the second week of Oct were juveniles.(6)

[OH Osthaus]

now I am going to have to pay attention

When the pup picked one up last Friday, I remember thinking it seemed larger. (I had missed with the first barrel so of course it seemed faster )

when I put the edge of a dollar bill along its bill there was more than a half inch overage . but the buff underside were not barred - so I think that points to a NA bird, just a large female

Dean- easy answer- just stop missing

[Dean Romig]

Thanks Dan and I agree with you about the stages of migration of juveniles, males and then females and we have taken a number of each almost every season.
Not to argue the point but the ones I’m referring to are so much like the ones in the pictures I included with the markedly pointed wings and much larger size.

We’ll see... maybe I’ll get one someday.





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[Woodcock survey]

I hope you do get one and soon, this is very interesting.
My sons flushed a bird a few years ago that they missed and marked it's flight and asked if woodcock interbred with bats. We followed it up and it was a snipe in an alder thicket. No we did not hit it.

[Hixie]

Interesting conversation and topic Dean. I've only seen the Eurasian birds in hunting videos (you-tube) from over there somewhere. They do seem larger than our woodcock here are. I've not seen one that was so different either in flight or in hand that would make me wonder about them, but I see so few these days. If you do harvest one that you suspect may be Eurasian, take lots of photos and at least pull some feathers or save a wing for DNA analysis. My guess is that if you got the photos to the Vermont F&W folks, they may be interested in learning more. If they aren't, another possibility would be the Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University. If your photos are compelling, they would take the feathers for DNA analysis.

[Dean Romig]

Thanks Ted, that’s good advice. I sure hope Grace and I are able to come across another this season.
We flushed 15 woodcock on Friday or Saturday (don’t remember which) but only about galf that number on Sunday. Hopefully more come through for this weekend to come.





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