Virtually invisible on the ground, a flushed woodcock seems to spring from the earth itself, slip fleetingly through the riotously colored foliage of autumn, and vanish into the lengthening shadows of an October afternoon. All too soon, wintry north winds will send the woodcock on its way, leaving behind cold, empty covers and bare trees. Witnessing this secretive bird's fall migration, you feel privy to the innermost workings of the season's change.
There is another, more pragmatic, reason to study the woodcock's migration: knowing when and where to find flight birds is the key to successful hunting. Until you can predict the migration with some degree of certainty, you're likely to miss out on some of the richest days of the wingshooter's year.
Freezing temperatures to the north, north winds, and clear skies should be signs that the woodcock are arriving, while southerly breezes and cloudy nights hold them up.
Barring unusual weather, woodcock will arrive at about the same time from year to year. They don't migrate all at once, but come in waves over the course of a fortnight or so. The females and the birds of the year precede the mature males, who are the last to leave in the fall, the first to migrate in the spring. So, a mixed bag of larger females and small birds of the year reveals that more flights are on the way.
With practice, you can sex woodcock by looking at their wing feathers. The last three primary feathers of a female woodcock average 4-6 mm in width, the male's primaries are only 2-3mm wide. Another, easier way to sex mature woodcock is to compare sizes: females average 7 oz., males about 5.3 oz.
Most seasons open soon enough to allow some hunting for resident birds before the migrants arrive. Find one or two woodcock in the early season and chances are good you'll find several in the same place later on. If you don't see birds, you might find bill holes in the mud or the white, uneven half-dollar sized splashes that are the woodcock's distinctive signature. If the splashes are wet, there are woodcock nearby. If they're dry and chalky, you're probably between flights.
Where should you look for these signs? Since woodcock navigate by following river bottoms and creeks they'll never be far from moist, wormy ground. They like second growth thick enough to provide a leafy canopy that blocks out light, leaving bare ground below. Good woodcock cover is often difficult for us to walk through, but if you get down and look, you'll see it's quite easy to get around in if you're only 10 or 11 inches tall.
Generally speaking, sand is not good soil for woodcock and neither is tall grass, although I've found birds in both. They do not like mossy soil, which is often too acidic to support worms. On the other hand, old orchards where rotting windfall apples enrich the soil provide excellent earthworm habitat. I've also shot woodcock along the edges of bean fields early in the pheasant season. Don't give up on good looking cover if you find it empty. Check two or three times during the season to see if flight birds have found a cover. If woodcock use a particular spot one year, they'll use it the next. After you find a good cover, tell no one where it is.
If you must hunt without a dog, pause frequently to unnerve close-sitting birds. Follow up the ones you miss. Woodcock rarely go far upon flushing and usually sit tight where you mark them down. The real drawback to being your own dog is that more often than not the birds will get up while you're tangled in the undergrowth you've been trying to kick them out of. Woodcock shooting, which is rarely easy, becomes downright impossible when you can't even move.
Watch an experienced woodcock hunter. Somehow he'll always be standing in the open when a bird flushes while you're picking a branch out of your eye or stepping over a deadfall. Successful hunters never become so focused on where the bird will flush that they lose track of where they are and whether they have room to swing a gun. Here's another trick to shooting woodcock: often, birds will flush nearly straight up to get over the brush, then head off in one direction or another. The time to shoot is the instant he seems to hang suspended just above the tree tops. Most shots at woodcock must be taken at very short range or not at all. Many hunters handicap themselves with too much choke (see sidebar on guns).
Early in the season, while the leaves are still up, you'll catch glimpses of, and hear, birds you'll never get a shot at. The heat and the mosquitoes will drive you to distraction. Don't be discouraged. Eventually, the leaves will fall, the weather will cool, and the flight birds will come. Then, if you've done your scouting and you time your hunts well, you'll find yourself in the thick of the migration. There are few better places for an upland bird hunter to be.
Most shots at woodcock are taken inside 15 yards. I hunt with a 20-gauge, but even the .410 is enough gun under most circumstances. Whatever gauge gun you choose, it should be choked cylinder, skeet, or IC at most, and loaded with 8s or 9s. For the ultimate in wide patterns, owners of 12-gauge Remington 1100's can order a special rifled skeet barrel from Hastings (P.O. Box 224, 320 Court, Clay Center, KS. 67432) The rifling spins the wad, and centrifugal force pulls shot away from the center of the pattern, spreading it even wider than a cylinder bore would and thinning out the dense center that can tear up game at close ranges.
Another method of opening patterns is to shoot brush loads containing flattened or square shot. The poor aerodynamic shape of these pellets increases air resistance as they fly, opening up patterns quickly. Orvis (Rt. 7A, Manchester, Vt. 05254) loads flattened shot into 12-, 16- and 20-gauge shells in 7 1/2s and 8s. The Cubic Shot Shell Company (P.O. Box 118, Youngstown, Ohio 44501) as its name implies, uses square number 7 shot in its 12-, 16- and 20-gauge brush loads.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced a management plan to reverse the woodcock's decline by promoting practices that will benefit woodcock and other young forest species on public and private lands. Since the majority of prime habitat is in private hands, education of landowners is a key part of this program. "Many landowners think leaving timber alone is the best thing they can do for wildlife," says Brad Bortner of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Actually, small clearcuts stimulate the second growth that many species of wildlife depend on."
According to Bortner, hunting does not seem to be a factor in the woodcock's decline; only 3 percent of banded woodcock are shot by hunters. "I think many birds make their fall migrations without ever seeing a hunter," he told me. The Service does need more harvest information, however. Hunters who want to help can volunteer to take part in the USF&WS annual woodcock harvest survey. Survey information and the free booklet " A Landowner's Guide to Woodcock Habitat Management" are available from Ashley Straw, Woodcock Specialist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Laurel, Md. 20708
On colder days, you'll find them on southern slopes, and obviously as the ground starts to freeze they'll concentrate in areas that remain soft.
Although woodcock sit tight as a rule, they can be surprisingly skittish on occasion. Hunt into the wind so your dog doesn't bump too many birds. Follow the woodcock you miss--they rarely fly more than one hundred yards or so and can usually be put up again.
Woodcock tend to follow rivers on their migration. Although any good habitat, even if only a few acres in size will serve as a suitable stopover on migration, there are three famous areas where woodcock concentrate: Cape May, New Jersey; Cape Charles, Virginia; and the Canaan Valley in West Virginia. Both Cape May and Cape Charles form natural funnels, collecting birds traveling along the coast who must then wait for a north wind to help them cross the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays.
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