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Started by indiaxman1, March 13, 2011, 06:36:14 PM

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indiaxman1

Flushed woodcock yesterday...first thought was small grouse until I caught up with him...always wanted to see the weird mating flight...I do have question..why have a season on these little guys?....have to shoot a dozen to make a meal...at least with doves, their are a ton of them....any comments?

beenthere

Quotewhy have a season on these little guys?....

Why not?  They are a sporting game that makes for some tough hunting, and a quick accurate shot.

Also, sportsman have long been known to be the most interested in working to create and maintain habitat so that game animals have a place to procreate.


And a good day of hard hunting with success will yield a dandy meal (cooked right ;) )
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Jeff

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thecfarm

Nice video Jeff.  We have a season on woodcocks here too.Never heard of hunting doves until I went to PA and there was a long line in a small store.I asked why,hunting license for doves.
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Norm

That's a cute video!

Patty and I've been learning the song to play together. Henry Mancini has done some great writing.

Chuck White

Nice video Jeff!

That must be their mating ritual. 

I've seen them doing that in the old roadways around here!
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northwoods1

Quote from: indiaxman1 on March 13, 2011, 06:36:14 PM
Flushed woodcock yesterday...first thought was small grouse until I caught up with him...always wanted to see the weird mating flight...I do have question..why have a season on these little guys?....have to shoot a dozen to make a meal...at least with doves, their are a ton of them....any comments?


I experienced having heard that "wierd mating flight" you mentioned. It was a few years back and on a job where I had been cleaning up tornado damage, it was pretty far from the beaten path and there was a huge area where all of the timber had been removed I am talking square miles of it, and I was in the middle of one of those large areas. It was a warm spring evening and very calm no wind the sun had went below the horizon and it was just at dusk so sound carried for a great distance and I was all alone out on the job. Then I started to hear these very strange noises some close, some far, it seemed like there were dozens of them spread out over this huge area and they all began doing this wierd noise thing as darkness was falling. VEry hard to describe what it sounded like, but honest to gosh I would have to say it sounded like a muffled elephant trumpeting :D. I sat on the tailgate of my pickup listening to that for 45 minutes or so it was the most bizarre thing! It took me a while to figure out that it was woodcocks and I had heard about how they make that noise but never experienced it. I guess they do it by flying to a great altitude and spiral back down to earth making the noise with there wings??

Last year I was driving in to my farm and just off the side of the gravel road I saw a woodcock sitting there, they are so well naturally camouflaged that they will sit in place and let you walk right up to them a lot of the time. I stopped my truck and it just sat there in the leaves on the side of the road so I got out of the truck and walked over to it just to see what it would do. When I got within a couple feet it got up and took a few steps and then I saw it had a baby underneath it that must have just hatched although it was not on the nest. The thing was so tiny! I bent over and picked it up in my hand and it never even made a fuss, it was covered with fuzz and had that goofy long beak already. The old one just stood there a few feet away and after I had studied it a few moments I put it back down where it was. When I was done with my work at the farm as I drove by again I noticed the old one had went back and was sitting over the young one again.

I wouldn't shoot one of those things I don't know why people feel they need to shoot every kind of critter that walks, flys or crawls I just don't understand that myself.

indiaxman1

Great story Northwoods, ..I used to hunt grouse back in 80's, but they are fairly scarce now, and I am just fired up to flush one now hiking....the wife was lucky enough to see a cock grouse do his mating dance with a harem of females (she said three) strutting and corraling them in clearing in front of our cabin..this also was years ago..all my bird hunting (with turkey exceptions..they are everywhere) is with binoculars

VT_Forestry

I was spraying herbicide (explains the marshmellow suit I'm wearing) last year and caught up to this little guy  :)

Forester - Newport News Waterworks

Jeff

Did ya eat em?  ;)

(Sorry northwoods1, I couldn't hep myself.) :)
Just call me the midget doctor.
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chain

I've found the 'doodles in willow thickets along the river, also was surprised one fall as we were quail hunting in the Ozarks in a bottom that used to be an old timber camp, the birds had come in to a maple and sassafras thicket. But that was the good 'ol days, years later a big woodcock wintered under our mother's privet hedge.

Today the season is not long and most birds have migrated on by the time I can get free to hunt them.

VT_Forestry

Quote from: Jeff on March 18, 2011, 09:23:17 AM
Did ya eat em?  ;)

(Sorry northwoods1, I couldn't hep myself.) :)

Haha, naaah I turned him loose...but I bet that beak makes a pretty good toothpick  :D
Forester - Newport News Waterworks

mad murdock

I never hunted woodcock back in wisc. but i recal you had to have a migratory bird stamp to hunt them.  i never did figure out where they migrate to however.
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treefarmer87

there is a season here. they like any kind of wet area around here and sagegrass. i have shot a few with my L.c. smith 20 ga. double, they have dark meat but they are pretty good :)
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SwampDonkey

I see woodcock as much as grouse in the summer. Never took notice of their mating flight.

My grandfather guided American sportsman for years hunting woodcocks. I don't know of anyone now that hunts them, but they do have a season up here and require a migratory game bird license like geese and ducks.

What's interesting is the Wilson's snipe song and dance flight. Now there is some entertainment. My woodlot is full of snipe doing their display in the spring. They sound like some kind of jungle bird and fly about like a woodcock. They actually look similar only not as plump as a woodcock.
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Left Coast Chris

I never knew this until I plowed our field to replant some alfalfa but we have killdeer here.   They were never seen until the field was plowed then they showed up and started nesting in the soil.  When interupted from the nest they do a combination jump/run/fly fluttering along then they go into their full wounded act.  It is pretty entertaining.   Several weeks later there are the little ones following the mom similar to how quail follow the parents.   A prety interesting bird.
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SwampDonkey

Yes, we would always work around the nests when working the fields. Sometimes you had to go around 5 nests on 70 acres. :D I know some people just run them over, we never did. They won't be here for awhile yet. They are actually a shore bird like a plover. I like the call of the killdeer.
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1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

WDH

Quote from: SwampDonkey on March 19, 2011, 10:13:30 PM
What's interesting is the Wilson's snipe song and dance flight. Now there is some entertainment.

SD,  Come down here to the South to see us, and we will take you snipe hunting ;D.
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SwampDonkey

I usually find 3 or 4 woodcock nests, you almost step on the hen before she flushes. You can hardly find the eggs even when your looking right at them. :D

WDH, you'd almost have to fill a sack full of snipe to make a meal wouldn't ya? ;) Many of the woodcock hunters came up from the Carolinas. There was an old judge, and a couple other old timers that became good friends of my grandparents. A couple from the old intergenerational plantations down there.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

WDH

As long as it is a croaker sack.  Some people call it burlap.  We will get you a sack full if you venture Southward  :).
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Jeff

We got snipe, you can take him here pre-pigroast-prep night. ;)
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

SwampDonkey

My buddy up north of Jeff has always hunted snipe back east here. I don't know if he does in Ontario or not. But as I said earlier, we have lots of them here to. ;D I don't think many bother hunting them though. People don't know how to hunt up here anyway. All they do is tramp on wheelers and in the pickup for an easy bag. Not like when grandfather hunted and guided. There wasn't that riding stuff except getting to camp or the spot to be hunted, then it was walk'n. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

and19bre

Why do I not seem to see or view that video Jeff posted? What was it about?  :( I wonder if not seeing it has something to do about my internet connection.

Jeff

If you can't see it at all, you probably need a flash plug in for your browser.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

northwoods1

Quote from: VT_Forestry on March 18, 2011, 02:32:05 PM
Quote from: Jeff on March 18, 2011, 09:23:17 AM
Did ya eat em?  ;)

(Sorry northwoods1, I couldn't hep myself.) :)

Haha, naaah I turned him loose...but I bet that beak makes a pretty good toothpick  :D

Did you know you can tell whether one of them is a male or female by the length of the bill? A males bill is about the width of a dollar bill the females is longer.

I'd eat them if someone offered me up a meal of them, but I couldn't see going out and hunting them myself. I never got into bird hunting much other than turkeys. My idea of hunting is crawling around on a mountain looking for a big bull elk or big mule deer.

I saw something interesting today when I was at my farm, it has been muddy there as the snow has begun to melt off the fields and the standing water was pretty deep in some places so ther was some big muddy areas. As I was walking along one of the field edges up flies a woodcock just few feet away it was probing around in the mud,  and whoosh :o something flies right in front of me and WHAM suddenly the feathers were flying... I was like, what the heck just happened? And then I see a kestrel or some similar type of bird of prey had been sitting watching this snipe probing around in the mud just waiting for the moment to go after it. It caught the snipe in mid air just after it had taken off. It could barely fly away with it but it did across the field. I saw that happen with a partridge and a red tailed hawk one time. Same thing happened, I was walking along and flushed the partridge and the hawk had been sitting in a nearby tree watching it and made a perfect dive bomb attack catching it in mid air.

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