Taking stock whilst catching woodcock

We were out woodcock-catching again this week, adding to our totals at one of our ringing sites.

Project leader Andrew Hoodless had an impressive session on Monday night with eighteen woodcock caught; ten of which were recaptures. This is what this project is really all about; the investment in ringing is reaped when we recapture previously-ringed birds. Collecting repeated biometric measures from different marked individuals will, over time, improve our understanding of the bird’s movements and changes in condition. It does, however, come at some cost – especially on nights like Monday. The best woodcock-catching weather is wet and windy, which it certainly was, and Andrew ended the night soaked through and freezing cold.

We were out again last night with far less success. There was enough wind, but it was a very clear starlit night, and most of the birds we saw flushed. We managed five between us (mostly Andrew) and this did include one recaptured bird. Frustrated by having missed a lot of birds, I ended the night by catching something other than a woodcock. This obliging stock dove sat nicely, and made an interesting and unusual addition to our night’s total.


Please help us continue our woodcock research

Why aren't we seeing much new location data?

Many woodcock sponsors have noticed a recent lack of activity from the tagged birds, and would be forgiven for thinking that there is a problem with the Woodcock Watch website. We can assure that this is not the case; it’s simply that no data is being transmitted at present.

We currently believe that the problem relates to the tags’ batteries. The tags are solar-powered and need to be recharged by the sun. To fully recharge a battery from flat will take about 4 hours of bright sunlight. It seems 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. Light intensity on a sunny winter’s day is only one ninth of that experienced on a day in June. On top of this, the woodcock’s nocturnal, secretive nature means that it spends most of the day hidden beneath dense vegetation. This does not mean the tags are permanently out of action though; assuming that some of the birds are still alive, their tags will begin to transmit again as soon as they recharge. This point has been proven by Olwen, who has transmitted good-quality data this week despite having been out of touch for over two months. He has now reappeared in Lincolnshire, where he is alive and well, having made his way from Western Russia.

Olwen's journey

It’s important to remember that this research is not tried and tested; this is new technology which has not been trialled on woodcock. Most current satellite tagging studies performed in the UK relate to diurnal summer visitors migrating between Britain and Africa. This is a far cry from the nocturnal woodcock which is migrating north to Russia and Scandinavia. Because this is such a new area of research there will undoubtedly be surprises and unforeseen problems. Whilst this may seem a disappointment, we must keep in mind the quality of the revelatory spring data we have gathered using these tags which more than make up for the problems we experience in autumn.

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Woodcock - working to provide the shooting community with more facts

by Andrew Hoodless, Head of Wetland Research

Following Katrina Candy's piece in The Scotsman (Watch the birdie and help to save woodcocks - 9th December 2014) we'd like to take this opportunity to discuss the work we're doing to help understand the impact of shooting on woodcock populations.

We believe that the woodcock population in Europe as a whole is stable and numbers of birds wintering here have been stable for the last 20 years. Hence, we believe that the shooting of winter migrants is currently sustainable.

We are concerned about declines in our resident breeding population. While we think that these are likely to be driven primarily by other factors, such as reduced woodland management, increasing deer numbers, increased predation and changing climate, we cannot rule out shooting as a contributory factor.

We therefore advise landowners with breeding woodcock to delay shooting until migrant birds have arrived in good numbers, typically after the November full moon, and to give careful consideration to the numbers they shoot.

We currently have a PhD student investigating patterns of decline in our breeding woodcock and the possible causes. As part of the outputs of our programme of research on woodcock migration, we aim to provide the shooting community with better facts to enable them to make informed decisions. We are working on understanding the impact of shooting on woodcock populations, with a view to producing guidelines on the levels and circumstances where shooting is sustainable.

We plan to analyze our data sets to look for an impact of shooting (or not) and submit the evidence for peer review. But this has not happened yet!

To find out more about our woodcock research please click here >

Monkey III first woodcock to return to UK

Monkey III is now back in the UK making him/her our first to return this winter. His/her current location is within 5 km of the location we caught and tagged him/her in March this year.

Monkey III was expected to be the first bird back – (s)he was the closest of our birds to Britain since arriving in the Netherlands on 11th November. Now (s)he has made the final hop across the North Sea and taken up a familiar wintering site in Hampshire.

His/her outward journey in spring, from Hampshire to Western Russia, saw him/her take a route that included a brief stop-over in Lincolnshire. It looks as though Monkey III did not make this stop on his/her return journey but we cannot be certain of this. (S)he may have called in briefly without pausing long enough for his/her tag to transmit from Lincolnshire.

Finally, to explain the question of Monkey III’s gender: sex in woodcock is determined by bill length. Males, on average, have shorter bills than females though there is an intermediate grey area where the ranges overlap. With a bill of 72mm, Monkey III fell within this region and so, unlike the majority of our other tagged birds, we cannot be certain of his/her sex.

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Latest November location updates - Amy, Monkey III, Nastasia & Rocky

Nearly half-way through November and several of our tagged woodcock are getting closer to returning to the UK including Monkey III, who had been silent for three months until we received an update on 11th November:

Monkey III is currently in the Netherlands after leaving Russia

Amy has flown through Belarus on her way back from Russia and is in Lithuania

Nastasia has passed through Latvia on her return and is now in Lithuania

Rocky is in Germany having stopped off in Poland on the journey back from Russia

Please help us continue our woodcock research

In order to find out more about these elusive birds we need to monitor more of them. Please help us tag more woodcock and continue our research. Click here to donate >

The myths of migration

The goldcrest takes the title of Europe’s smallest bird; and weighing just six grams (that’s the same as a twenty-pence piece), it is around half the weight of a blue tit. They are one of many British species that have both a resident breeding population living here all year round, and a migratory population that visits us from Scandinavia, Russia and Poland where typical winter temperatures would prove fatal.

Though usually inconspicuous during the breeding season, they are often seen in autumn when newly-arrived migrants are busily feeding to recoup from their long journey and prepare for the winter ahead.

The fact that such a tiny creature can make the perilous flight across Europe and the North Sea once seemed so implausible that some early thinkers concluded that they must be aided in their feat.  The goldcrest’s arrival more-or-less coincides with that of another autumn migrant, the woodcock, and it was believed by some that goldcrests crossed the sea hitching a lift on the woodcocks’ back.

According to legend, this gave rise to the goldcrest’s traditional folk name of ‘Woodcock Pilot’.
The tale of the woodcock pilot is not the only myth associated with migration and there are a number that centre on the woodcock itself. Most widely-known is that of the apocryphal ‘Woodcock Moon’ that suggests woodcock time their migration to coincide with November’s full moon, using its light to help them navigate. This seems bound to an earlier, more farfetched myth that proposed that woodcock flew from the moon where they had purportedly spent the summer.

In truth, it seems unlikely that woodcock use the light of the moon to migrate – as a nocturnal species their eyes are well-adapted to low-light levels. The most obvious cues for migration are the weather conditions and woodcock appear to favour sea-crossings on nights that are dry and cloudless with a favourable tail-wind. It is probably the case that on these clear nights the moon appears at its brightest and so woodcock and the November moon have become interwoven in country lore.

There is another, more plausible tale as to how the goldcrest became known as the woodcock pilot. This suggests the goldcrest is a ‘pilot’ in the alternative sense of the word; a preliminary guide which tests the water before the arrival of the woodcock. It’s true that that appearance of the goldcrest commonly precedes that of the woodcock and I mention this as I have seen a number of goldcrests feeding in the garden this week.  Perhaps this suggests the woodcock will soon be on their way?

For the next few weeks all eyes will be on the Woodcock Watch website as we anticipate the welcome return of our winter visitors.

Support our Woodcock Watch project

Please help us tag and monitor more woodcock so we can learn even more about these fascinating birds. You can donate online through JustGiving >

Flurry of activity as woodcock begin their return

A number of our tagged woodcock have now started their journeys back to the UK and we have received a flurry of location updates:

Amy is now in Belarus having left Russia

James is currently in Estonia having now left Russia

Lanyon has reached Poland after leaving Russia

Rocky has made it to Germany after leaving Russia

Please help us tag more woodcock

It costs £3,500 to tag and monitor a single woodcock on its epic journey for one year. Please support our project here - no donation is too small.