The HuntingPA.com Outdoor Community banner

Gonna be a good year for woodcock

1K views 15 replies 8 participants last post by  R. S. B. 
#1 ·
Just found my second brood on the same 100 acre property I have permission to train dogs on, both broods were 3 chicks. Mom came up with her legs dangling, taking a short flight, chicks soon followed her.
 
#6 ·
Those woodcock flying at dusk are moving from their daytime loafing cover to a nighttime feeding area. They might return to the same area at sunrise or might go to a different area for rest and protection that next day.
 
#7 ·
I just started hunting woodcock last year and found a few good spots. When hunting bear one night I saw them flying and landing on ground. So where they are at night they usually aren't there during the day? I never tried to hunt them where saw them at night
 
#12 ·
They can vacate an area, as I have found. A place near me has LOTS of breeding activity. It was designed to be that way. I have never seen one there when I'm pheasant hunting or sitting by the duck ponds on early Oct. mornings. They gotta be somewhere, i just cant' find them with a shotgun.
 
#8 ·
Woodcock can fly anywhere from 100 yards to a half mile from their resting cover to their feeding areas. And some covers will have soft ground or small openings that woodcock dont have to fly out to eat. Woodcock like stem density with a bare ground they can easily walk around. If the area has thick grass, you wont find woodcock. Within the next month, stem density could be drying out golden rod. I have a cover that is mature aspen, but has tall weeds with stem density similar to golden rod. Close by is another cover that is mostly mature pines with weeds mixed in. Not a lot of stem density, but the pines provide cover from avian predators. The more you look for them, the more you'll be amazed at places you'll find them.
 
#14 ·
[QUOTE ] If the area has thick grass, you wont find woodcock.[/QUOTE]

That is probably mostly true, what I used to believe and always told people. But, after years of hunting some extremely dense warm season grass fields covered with big blue stem grass over six and even seven feet tall I am amazed at the number of woodcock we find in those fields during the fall. Granted there is usually some small black locust stands mixed in nearby. But, usually when we get the woodcock on point they are generally well out in the tall and extremely dense warm season grass.

They are usually safe from me though since I don't like to eat them and almost never even try to shoot one unless I have someone with me that wants to eat them. I've only shot at two, and got both of them, in the past eight years.

My dog doesn't like the taste of them either. He is generally a retrieving fool but with woodcock he will point them but will not pick one up. He will run out and stand over it then look back at you like "if you want this thing you come and get it."

Dick Bodenhorn
 
#15 ·
My guess is you are seeing migrating and cover hopping woodcock that settled down in your locust stands and other nearby similar cover, that got pushed out by the pheasant hunters and settled down in your tall grasses as they looked for vertical stem density. Bet they also struggled to get out of there.

I can make you some woodcock that you'd enjoy. But they are a different taste that not everyone enjoys. I dont shoot many, 6 last year. People I guided shot more than me, which is why I shoot so few. Would rather see them shoot birds, and restrict what I kill to protect the resource.
 
#16 ·
I suspect you are correct about the woodcock being flight birds that sat down in the black locust. That is why I have opposed some of the proposals to remove more of the black locust from the warn season grass fields.

The thing that has surprised me though is how much woodcock will run a head of the dog in those think warn season grass fields. Several times I would have bet we had a running pheasant only to end up with a woodcock instead of a pheasant flush. Often it is in the youth season and I have to call the kid off the shot since most of them don't have the migratory permit.

I have tried both duck and woodcock that people said was edible and I would like. So far they have all been liars, with the exception of Game Commission Biologist Matt Lovello who cooked up some duck gumbo that was good. I suspect the only reason that duck was edible was because it was mixed in and masked by all the other stuff in the gumbo that really was good eats.

Dick Bodenhorn
 
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top