doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Woodcock Sighting!

I live in a small town, definitely not rural(as it was in my father's time) but not urban. And suburban doesn't quite fit either. Everybody clear on that?

OK - I was outside in the backyard with my Brittany Gabe, drinking my morning coffee and checking out the weather, a beautiful springy morning in winter with sun and chilled air making anything seem possible. A couple of the dogs in the big yard on the other side of the fence and arbutus bushes and cedar tree etc. were trying to get Gabe's attention.

A little toddler I never saw before came and quieted the dogs down. It was touching seeing how much mutt # 1 was obviously protecting the little boy. Anyway, we were "talking", discussing the significance of the Magna Carta in relation to Jeffersonian democracy, when a third dog came into view about 40 yards or so at the far end of the yard running and barking towards us. Chasing a bird that was definitely not the usual bird I would see out there.

My brain was putting it together as my eyes were frozen on the beating of the wings and the erratic flight and lickety-split the bird zipped over the fence in front of me, froze in the air about 6 feet from me, just long enough for the synapses to fire and "woodcock" to flash behind my eyeballs, then corkscrewed to the right and disappeared in the tall hemlocks.

It was breathtaking! Definitely a first around these neck of the woods, at least for me, and, tellingly, the earliest I've EVER seen or heard word of this species to be passing through.

This weird winter has definitely had its part in this morning's sighting. March 7. In my experience that's quite early for western Massachusetts.

What a gift!

I'd love to hear from other members from these parts with their side of the story. For that matter, it would be GREAT to hear EVERYONE chiming in with their stories of brushes with gamebirds outside of the hunting season.

Sorry to have rambled on. The morning coffee is racing with the adrenaline from the woody sighting!

Guys have been seeing them in southern NH for a week+ now, but those spots are closer to the coast. From what I've seen, the birds migrate up the coasts and then go in on the waterways.

They may be a bit early, but that by much.

I'm going to be looking for them in Southern ME this weekend.

OWD

We have a few woodcock here in Indiana now. I've been working my puppies on them. It's great having some wild birds to work pups in March! These birds here are pretty wild, not holding great for dogs. I imagine they remember being chased by dogs and hunters in the deep south this winter.

Looks like they're already up the coast in Downeast Maine:

http://www.uplandjournal.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard312a/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=2;t=72705

OWD

Pretty scarce around here. I remember the first one I shot.
My GSP made the point along a slough...whir and bang it was down. She wouldn't pick it up to make the retreive..... apparently it just didn't smell right .

We found very few in Georgia last season.The warm weather might be one reason. Bobby

I had them in central Pa 2 weeks ago. Wondering if they never went south.

At least one went south.

I saw one this past weekend in East Texas. It was in a wooded area that is sometimes marshy and wet.

Boy, are they fast.

HHH

We flushed one on a quail hunt in a fallow shrubby field west of Brownsville, TX a couple of years ago. Pretty cool to see a woodcock, feral parrots, and assorted subtropical stuff on the same day. She was about a mile and a half from being a Mexican woodcock(!)

Woodcock only go where the ground is soft enough so that they can penetrate the ground with their beaks. Many dogs, used to hunting pheasants, quail, and grouse, will just walk over them. They are great table fare.