She left sometime during the night of October 23 rd , and weather records from nearby Bangor show that night was the first in weeks with a northerly wind. Cloudy skies and light rain may have given her an extra level of cover during her nocturnal flight.
She flew a relatively short distance that first night, travelling just over 75 miles to spend the day near Wiscasset, Maine. The next night she continued on, flying another miles and stopping just east of Boston.
There, she set up shop in a small woodlot in between two fairways on a golf course. After nine days of rest, she continued onward, travelling another 90 miles to central Connecticut where she spent another 11 days resting before making a nearly mile jump that took her to inside the Beltway of Washington D. From D. The last signal we received from her was on December 13 th. This woodcock migrated a total distance of just over miles during a period of 47 days.
She had made her home just a few miles from my own, after all, in a cover I hunt, owned by my employer. But even though the feat of animal migration is always remarkable, in terms of woodcock migration this particular bird was fairly average.
During fall migration the average woodcock travels miles between its breeding and wintering areas. Woodcock hunters are forever trying to be in the right place at the right time. Too often, we find that The white splashes of woodcock poop on the ground often indicate only that a hunter should have been there yesterday. There are a few million woodcock in the United States, most of them flitting around east of the Mississippi.
In fact, survey evidence indicates that woodcock and robins migrate south about the same time. So if you can still see a robin or two in your backyard, figure there are a few woodcock around, too, and hunt the right combinations of habitat for them. Woodcock territory overlaps considerably with ruffed grouse cover. In fact, woodcock might be found everywhere grouse live.
Some of the best places to hunt for woodcock in the northeast are under dogwood and viburnum shrubs. The autumn leaves of several species of these head-high shrubs are a rich red color, making them easy to spot from a distance. The sun-sheltered, loamy ground underneath is usually bare of grasses.
Small patches of bright yellow goldenrod, if adjacent to these tall red-leafed shrubs, provide a similar shelter on the ground, as well as a supply of worms and small beetles underneath.
Goldenrod and several of these shrubs grow in most of the Eastern United States, all the way to Louisiana. Relatively novel techniques involving the use of intrinsic markers provide an alternative method of assessing the breeding origins of birds on winter sites.
Stable-isotope analysis is one such technique. It relies on the fact that chemical elements occur in two or more forms that differ slightly in their molecular weight. These variants are known as isotopes. For hydrogen, a constituent of water, ratios of the different isotopes exhibit predictable gradients across continents. Because all animals assimilate these isotopes in their tissues through their food, hydrogen isotope ratios in animal tissues provide a crude geographic marker.
The main thing is that woodcock need exposed soil to probe their beaks and find worms. A friend told me about hunting stocked pheasants last season, when he kicked up a bunch of woodcock in a charred area leftover from a prescribed fire.
I found this particularly interesting, as I had recently read about a similar occurrence in the book Woodcock Shooting , the classic by Edmund Davis. I did some digging, and found one biologist who theorized that the fire would expose soil that was previously inaccessible to the birds, thereby creating new feeding grounds.
Although woodcock prefer high-stem-density cover most of the time, pay attention to forest openings and fields, too. Normally the edges have that high-density cover, and the openings provide space for roosting and their spring sky dance ritual. To recap: Find an open area even a small one with soft soil and thick undercover beside it, and you may just happen upon woodcock. I have found good woodcock cover in abandoned apple orchards, alders along brooks, overgrown farmland, or in places adjacent to log landings, clear cuts, and logging roads.
North faces of mountains and hills can provide more moisture and cooler temps as well. Just remember that timing is a crucial part of hunting migratory woodcock. There are days when a cover will be overrun with birds and your three-bird limit could be had even on a bad shooting day. The next day, the very same cover could be completely empty, with not a single bird to be found.
Woodcock handle well for dogs because they tend to stay put on point. For those bold enough, they can even be hunted without a dog. Back in my dog-less days, I would grid cover methodically, knowing birds will often not flush unless almost stepped on. In a pinch, look above ground level in case a bird has hung up in branches or the cover above. Many people look down on woodcock meat, but this due to the usual misunderstandings associated with wild game.
I prefer to age the birds—guts in—for a few days in the refrigerator. Just about every cut of meat we eat from the grocery store is aged for a reason: it tastes better. Do not overcook woodcock; they are meant to be eaten medium-rare.
Lastly, the legs are white meat and delicious in their own right. It is considered, by some uplanders, a mortal sin to throw them away. My season often starts in Maine and New Hampshire, wanders through Massachusetts, and eventually concludes in the cover of Connecticut. On some days, I hunt more than one state. Truth be told, though, I may just head even further south this season.
Because when woodcock begin to fade from my grouse haunts, a touch of desperation sets in. Help bring military veterans and the hunting community together this fall.
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