Timber doodles...

[G-Man]

I have done a lot of management for grouse the past 10 years and this year the added benifits seem to be an abundance of woodcock! The grouse numbers are up this year as are sighting while putting in food plots and some timber management.

I have never seen resident woodcock here in 20 plus years I have owned the land. A few in fall for a day or two as they migrated south ,but I have 4 that I see almost every day I am out ( and they are different birds for sure)they don't chase me on the tractor like the grouse,but scamper and flit ahead for about a hundred yards then stand to the side as I drive by.. I don't really knkw much about them other than they eat worms.. but there must be a reason they decided to stay this year. Perhaps the forest floor thay was sold pine has broken down enough for worms to thrive.. I've looked for habitat info and foods but have not found to much ,but I welcome these funny birds!

[Daveboone]

they like marshy ground for their probing. they do migrate, but will linger if they like the pickings. Beautiful little birds.

Sometimes I run into quite a few of them grouse hunting, but stopped hunting them after trying to eat a few....taste as much like a dog ....dropping.... as I can imagine a dog ....dropping ....would taste like.

[mike rossi]

they like marshy ground for their probing. they do migrate, but will linger if they like the pickings. Beautiful little birds.

Sometimes I run into quite a few of them grouse hunting, but stopped hunting them after trying to eat a few....taste as much like a dog ....dropping.... as I can imagine a dog ....dropping ....would taste like.

 

There you go again with poetry that is 130 years old. Who do you think you are fooling? You recited this about grouse, now woodcock, Go ahead about rails, doves, bobwhite and snipe, all copy cat  statements of outdated believes  

Edited June 21, 2016 by mike rossi

[Four Season Whitetail's]

There you go again with poetry that is 130 years old. Who do you think you are fooling? You recited this about grouse, now woodcock, Go ahead about rails, doves, bobwhite and snipe, all copy cat  statements of outdated believes  

HaHa....This statement coming from you????  Riiiiiiiight!!!

[Critter4321]

i have eating plenty of wood cocks (never tried dog droppings) but them birds tasted pretty good to me

[Chris B]

I just had woodcock for the first time last week and I thought it was horrible. Going to try some different recipes in the future and see if I can make it any better for myself

[Doewhacker]

With Woodcock its more about timber management, open fallow areas for mating and low growing shrubs that cascade like a fountain for nesting cover. If you go out in the early spring, March through May, you will no doubt hear and see male's do their Peent and flight dance. Don't worry about food source's, they will take care of that on their own.  

 

I love the taste of Woodcock, second only to Grouse. Its all about how you prepare it I suppose, I treat mine like venison.

[mike rossi]

I just had woodcock for the first time last week and I thought it was horrible. Going to try some different recipes in the future and see if I can make it any better for myself

 

I was a horrible cook, It was not until I got married that I learned to cook at all, even though my wife insists on cooking. How long you let the meat rest after cooking, how you slice the meat, these dozens of factors in cooking. I can hardly  eat domestic grocery meats they are too tasteless.

 

A member on here, you know -Jim is the expert on cooking though, not me.

 

However, I dont think this discussion should evolve to cooking. You are seriously invested in bird hunting and your bird dog - and there are people who want to take your opportunity to hunt with your dog away from you, and some of them are hunters, including hunters on this site. And people on this site pretending to be hunters as well. 

 

One of the tactics they use is to regurgitate or quote old (130 years on) poetic statements, either verbatim or with an original twist - but the message is always the same and reflect a stilted Robert Frost-styled expression, for example:   I am a a hunter (yeah right) but who thou  no longer hunts those tiny birds so a scant a of meat and bitter of flavor.... Thou only shoot them today with my camera.... As thou enjoy es watching them dance across the moonlight . thou est ...  Crap like that. 

 

We are compiling a report on these statements, when and by who they were first made, and tracking them all the way to people reciting them today. The report will be on our website(s) like everything else we debunk. 

 

We already are finishing a similar report - about common newspaper themes that attack bird hunting. When it is done I will post it as a pdf so people can download it to their computers. When you read these, It will be obvious we know what these people are going to say before they say it. 

Edited June 21, 2016 by mike rossi

[airedale]

Woodcock are movers, here today gone tomorrow, had days where I would flush a dozen and hunt the same cover and see none. My best luck was and is wooded areas around water, not big trees, patches of fairly thick small diameter trunked brushy stuff like Alders growing along side small creeks, ponds and streams. Old over grown orchards have produced well at times also,  some of the same types of habitat I find Grouse in also. As far as eating I always thought Woodcock tasted pretty good.

 

Al

Edited June 21, 2016 by airedale

[G-Man]

With Woodcock its more about timber management, open fallow areas for mating and low growing shrubs that cascade like a fountain for nesting cover. If you go out in the early spring, March through May, you will no doubt hear and see male's do their Peent and flight dance. Don't worry about food source's, they will take care of that on their own.

I love the taste of Woodcock, second only to Grouse. Its all about how you prepare it I suppose, I treat mine like venison.

That's where I've been seeing them in about a 10 year old thinned pine stand.. lots of undergrowth.. it's not marshy at all and has plots in it with clover and old mowed log landings

[G-Man]

I've never eaten them and have only seen them passing thru in the fall.. I'll have to put some cams on super sensitive and low to the ground and see if I can get some pics..

[First-light]

True story….walking into the Time Life building in Manhattan a few years ago I come upon a worker with a milk crate over a bird. I take a look and it was a Woodcock. Must of flown right into a building and fell pretty hard. I heard he was the main course that night! lol

[Curmudgeon]

I kicked out a bird yesterday that would not leave. I assume she was nesting even though she didn't do a distraction display. It was also in a thinned pine stand - actually, a former Christmas tree plantation of Scotch pine. I've been cutting a few pines each winter for deer food. There is a lot of brambles and smaller hardwoods between the remaining pines.

[Huntscreek]

I always look to the ground on our property, the mud will be probed. The seem to like the wet thick stuff here. I hunted with English Setters unless the ground near pines are wet I don't see them. Early fall before hitting a spot I like to see where they have been feeding.

[LI OUTDOORSMAN]

Ate a woodcock once it wasnt too bad reminded me of a wild duck taste like teal which I happen to like.

[Doewhacker]

I kicked out a bird yesterday that would not leave. I assume she was nesting even though she didn't do a distraction display. It was also in a thinned pine stand - actually, a former Christmas tree plantation of Scotch pine. I've been cutting a few pines each winter for deer food. There is a lot of brambles and smaller hardwoods between the remaining pines.

 

Young have already fledged and are moving out away from mom at this point, they are slightly ahead of normal this year due to the early spring.

[Doewhacker]

Another tell tale sign are the droppings of the bird, chalk as it is known because it looks white like chalk on the forest floor. If you find an area they frequent you will see the chalk. That's the main way I know if the flight is on in the fall.

[airedale]

My family home where I grew up was a farming community and  Woodcocks were a common sight. Many times I witnessed the Woodcock's flight display and the distinct sound their wings made as they circled high in the sky.

 

This fellow's video brought back some memories.

 

[Water Rat]

I shot one years ago while small game hunting.

[Daveboone]

There you go again with poetry that is 130 years old. Who do you think you are fooling? You recited this about grouse, now woodcock, Go ahead about rails, doves, bobwhite and snipe, all copy cat  statements of outdated believes  

Huh?

I don't remember ever replying about grouse at all....please quote me. Grouse taste fine, and don't eat worms, they eat buds, specifically poplar, apple, and berries. What outdated beliefs? I believed only that the only Woodcock I ate tasted like dog doo. strange!

[Bowguy 1]

One of our coolest game birds. Love hunting them