Clear evidence of breeding site fidelity in woodcock

I know we’re constantly talking about site fidelity – but it’s interesting especially when demonstrated so clearly as it is in the maps below (click to enlarge them). It’s obvious that these birds repeatedly return to the same areas to breed – which has conservation implications for the areas where the largest concentrations reside.

As for the question as to why Crugith has not been so faithful– we think she must’ve picked up some sort of injury, disease or parasite that has prevented her from reaching the desired level of fitness. There are no breeding birds in Cornwall so it is impossible that she is breeding there – she’s just sitting out the summer because she could not attain the condition required to return to Siberia. She is still alive as her movement appears to be normal, but there must be some underlying health issue.

It's worth noting that of the birds featured in the maps below, Remy, Amy, Rebecca, Lanyon, Wensum are all females. St. Brendan and Olwen are both of an unknown sex so could also be females. So the site fidelity we are seeing is definitely true of females but we don’t have any data for males – at least not in 2014. Last year, however, we had Monkey - a male who travelled to exactly the same site in 2013 as he did in 2012.

Amy

St. Brendan

Crugith

Lanyon

Olwen

Remy

Wensum

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New chart shows latest Woodcock Watch data at a glance

Our woodcock are continuing their journeys across Europe and we've just received location updates for each of them.

The new chart below shows details for each bird and updates automatically on our website and blog as soon as we enter new data:

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Sunny weather leads to glut of new location data

We've received a rush of new location data including information from birds who we haven't heard from in a while. The sunnier weather has obviously recharged the satellite tags so we can gladly share the following location updates:

Rebecca

Tagged in 2012, Rebecca is in Wales for a 3rd Winter having travelled to western Russia.

St. Brendan

Last heard from in October, St. Brendan has sent data from his winter site in Cork, Ireland having returned from Latvia.

Olwen

Having left East Yorkshire on the 3rd March, Olwen was in Denmark by the 5th. Now she's on the Sorve Peninsula in Estonia!

Crugith

More data has been received from Crugith's location close to her catching site in Cornwall after her return from Siberia.

Location Update: Crugith returns and Olwen back off to Russia already?

We're pleased to confirm that Crugith has returned safely to Cornwall from Siberia. She may have been back some time with her reappearance due to her tag recharging, as we speculated back in February.

We've received interesting new data from Olwen, one of our birds tagged in Wales. Having returned from Russia to winter in Yorkshire it seems Olwen has already left the UK and is currently in Glesborg, Denmark.

Track Olwen's journey in more details here >

Amy back at site where she was caught - 6,400km later!

Amy has moved further west and is now back at the exact site she was caught in Galway, Ireland. She left on 10th March and has travelled 6,382km on her journey to Russia and back.

What is really interesting about this is that Amy was still in eastern Ireland on the 6th of February, so we know she did not return to the west until some time this week.

This behaviour shows that woodcock will make large movements through the course of the winter, not just in the autumn. This confirms what we suspect about their ability to react to changes in local weather conditions - but it is particularly interesting to see that she has eventually returned to a familiar site.

This essentially seems to show that woodcock can retain information about a suitable wintering site, but only choose to return to it if the weather is sufficiently bad. It may even be that individuals have a suite of different sites they’ve visited before, and can resort to different options given the different situations presented to them (although this last point is only speculative with the data we currently have).



Location Update - Was it Crugith?

During our trip to Cornwall last week, we spotted a woodcock with a satellite tag. Andrew Hoodless got within 10 feet of the bird and could clearly see the tag, but wasn’t quite able to catch the bird. Hence, infuriatingly, we weren’t able to confirm the bird’s identity, but it was in the same field where Crugith was caught in February 2013 and we believe it is most likely to be this bird.

We received good data on Crugith’s autumn migration until she reached Germany on 9th November, so it is possible that she has been back in Cornwall for a while. The sighting, along with a recent transmission from Amy in Ireland, confirms our suspicions that a reasonable proportion of our 2013 batch of birds are still alive but their tags are not transmitting owing to the gloomy, wet winter weather.

The reliance on solar recharging of the smallest satellite tags is known to be a limitation in winter, but there is a chance that some of the tags may start transmitting again in late March/April when the birds head off on spring migration.

Click here to sponsor Crugith >

Location Update: Amy back in Ireland

Great news - Amy's tag has resumed transmission and she is currently back in Ireland, although not yet in Galway where she began her journey last March.

Amy has covered over 6,200km so far on her journey which has taken her to western Russia and back.

Click here to sponsor Amy >

Is Olwen our first woodcock back in Britain?

New data received this morning show one of our Welsh birds, Olwen, is back in the UK. This new location comes from the East Riding of Yorkshire and is the first provided by Olwen’s tag since early September. As Olwen was caught in Wales last winter, we would expect to see him/her returning to a similar location this year. It seems likely that this is the first stop-off on his/her way across the UK back to mid-Wales.

It is the first time this winter that one of our birds has sent data from within the UK - but it may not necessarily mean that Olwen is the first bird back. Other woodcock, such as Lanyon and Crugith, were making good progress across Europe but we have not received recent data from these birds. It may be that these two, or others, have slipped into the UK already – but have passed ‘beneath our radar’. If this is the case we can only hope that their tags send us data soon, letting us know where they are now.

Why so quiet?

Many regular viewers of Woodcock Watch may have noticed a recent lack of activity from the tagged birds. This is in contrast to observations from the field – many sponsors have written to us to say that the woodcock seem to be reappearing in the UK now. So why is there so little movement?

We believe that the problem relates to the tags’ batteries. The tags are solar-powered and need to be recharged by the sun. It is possible that during the bird’s moult, due to a change in the woodcocks’ behaviour, the tags were not receiving sufficient sunlight and have run completely flat. To fully recharge a battery from flat will take about 4 hours of bright sunlight. It may be that the tags are not receiving this. Day length is short and sunlight intensity low in the northern locations where the birds have spent the autumn, not to mention the fact that the birds are often hidden during the day.

Those who followed Woodcock Watch last year will remember the same issues in our first autumn. However, this year’s results have been noticeably better and the tags have returned far more data. Crugith and Lanyon for instance have transmitted useful results through the majority of their autumn migration and we hope that more such data is on its way.

It is more than likely that some of the birds have died. Crousa, who we have not heard from since May, and Elissa, who has not sent data since June, are probably no longer alive. Annual survival rates are around 60% for woodcock - that is to say that around 40% of the adult population do not survive from one year to the next. Lifespan does not typically exceed 4 years. It is perfectly natural that we lose a few of our woodcock over the course of a year.

But for birds like St Patrick, Skittle, Amy and Rebecca, who last transmitted in August or September, there is still hope. It is possible that their tags will receive the sunlight they require in the coming weeks and will then begin transmitting data again. We observed this pattern in 2012 with several individuals sending winter locations after an autumn quiet period. It is possible that some of these birds, when we next here from them, will be back here in the UK.

New location data for Crugith and Lanyon

Crugith and Lanyon continue to set the pace for the return to the UK. Crugith is currently in Berkatal in central Germany:

Lanyon meanwhile is hot on Crugith's heels and is currently in Pierkunowo, Poland:

Crugith leading the charge home

It looks like Crugith may be the first of our woodcock to make it back to the UK. She's continuing west and has just crossed over into Germany from Poland.

Crugith arrives in Poland

More news from Crugith this morning - she's made the hop over the border from Belarus to Poland.

Latest Woodcock Location Updates

Crugith is on the move again - she's passed Russia and is now on the Belarusian/Polish border:

Wensum has started her migration now. She's crossed the Baltic and is taking a break in Southern Sweden:

Crugith stops for a break

We've received some new data from Crugith, it appears she's stopped for a break in Saransk, Russia.

Crugith & Lanyon making strong headway

Several of the birds are returning regular data right now, but two in particular seem to be making strong headway with their autumn migrations.

Crugith, one of our two Cornish/Siberian birds, has spent the past month travelling the breadth of Russia and is now closing in on the border. The 2,800 km that she has travelled so far sees her just past the halfway mark of her mammoth journey. She appears to be taking a more southerly route than our other Siberian migrants; something she also did on the outward trip. We’re very interested to see if she passes through the Ukraine as she did in the spring; when studying migration the routes and stop-offs are just as interesting and important as the final destination.

Lanyon is also heading back and making good progress. Her journey may only be around half of that travelled by Crugith, but with the exception of the three Siberian birds Lanyon is our easternmost breeder. So far Lanyon has covered around 600 km since she left a month ago. Both birds are now between 600 and 700km from the Russian border.

Who do you think will be the first to leave Russia? If not Lanyon or Crugith, could it be Rebecca or Amy, both of whom bred close to the border?

Outside of Russia, none of our birds are showing signs of significant moving. St Brendan and Wensum have both sent data within the past couple of weeks and neither have moved away from their summer sites yet.

Crugith

Lanyon

Updates on Crugith and Lanyon

New data shows that Crugith has managed to cover another 750 km since she last sent data and is now near Saransk, Russia. 

Meanwhile Lanyon has flown just short of 400km since 7th October and is now getting close to Moscow.

Crugith shares more location data

Crugith has sent more data from central Russia & she's still near Perm. We're wondering why this is such a popular stop-off?

Click here to view Crugith's journey >

Woodcock Case Study - Woody II

Name: Woody II
Tagged: Norfolk
Weight: 328g
Bill length: 75mm
Distance travelled: 4,360 miles
Furthest location: Evenkiysky District, Russia

Thanks to our satellite-tracking programme, our scientists have discovered that following his overwinter stay in Britain, ‘Woody 11’ flew to the same breeding grounds in Siberia as Monkey and Crugith. This is probably where he was born – an extraordinary feat for such a small bird.

Click here to sponsor Woody II >

How fast do woodcock fly, where do they go to breed and are they site-faithful?

We now have some fascinating insights into woodcock behaviour and migration after fitting a further 13 birds with satellite tags early this spring.

Tagged at six sites across Britain and Ireland the birds have made it to their breeding sites and have settled in Sweden (1), Finland (1), Latvia (2), north-west Russia (7) and central Russia (2).

Monkey, from the first batch of birds, who astonished everyone by flying to central Siberia to breed last summer, is still alive and back at the same breeding site this year. We estimate that he has now flown at least 38,000 kilometres (km) (23,750 miles) during his life.

This year he has been joined in Siberia by Woody II and Crugith, who have flown 6,980km (4,360 miles) and 7,100km (4,440 miles) respectively. Clearly, this is an important breeding area for some of the woodcock that winter in Britain, a fact that we would never have discovered without satellite tracking.

With information from 24 woodcock, we are now getting close to the sample size required to appreciate individual differences in the behaviour of birds tagged at the same and different winter sites.

We now know that woodcock migration consists of a series of long, fast flights of 600-1,100km (375-690 miles), broken up by stops en route typically lasting 7-15 days. Flight speed averages about 30km/h (19mph), but can reach 93km/h (58mph). Monkey and Rebecca have demonstrated that woodcock can be extremely faithful to the same breeding and winter sites each year.