Species-Specific Management (SSM)

American Woodcock

A management plan for woodcock on your farm or woodlot should take into account aspects of the bird's feeding, nesting, and breeding behavior, as well as its movement and migratory patterns. A good working knowledge of the life history and habitat preferences of the woodcock will be very useful in instituting a plan to increase woodcock populations. Some information can be obtained from bird field guides.

Woodcocks are very dependent upon certain types and successional stages of vegetation for their various needs. Old fields and clearings provide singing and roosting grounds, dense stands of young hardwoods on moist, fertile soil provide cover for feeding in these areas. A large part of a woodcock management plan will be in controlling the size and density of vegetation. Cutting or burning forest tracts, grazing, and planting are all possibly useful vegetation management techniques. This is a bird of wet early forests with dense vegetation. When forests "grow up" the bird leaves.

The following is a list of management options for woodcock involving habitats, populations, people management, as well as other useful ideas for wildlife management (woodcock mostly) for the private landowner. All of these ideas will not apply for every area or situation. You should be very selective in choosing appropriate techniques or options for your particular area. You should determine your objectives first, whether they are aesthetic, economic, or both, then decide which options will most efficiently bring the desired results.

1. Monitor the status of local populations. This can be accomplished by keeping track of federal and state hunting season dates and takelimits. Migrating woodcocks arrive at varying times each year so season detes and lengths are adjusted accordingly. Census information from wintering grounds, using banding techniques to distinguish resident and migratory birds, is used to aid in determining these values.
2. Conduct singing male survey every spring in a prescribed route.
3. Get a copy of the wing collection survey, conducted during hunting season (provides data on reproduction success).
4. Determine ratio of immature to adult females (wing collection).
5. Federal government should control bag limit due to migratory status.
6. Opening dates of hunting seasons should be set by individual states due to migration.
7. States can change seasons if catastropohy (drought, flood, etc.) happens.
8. States should set hunting seasons at peak of migratory wave.
9. States should have capture and banding studies to: distinguish resident population from migrant population; and to determine the status of the local population.
10. Protect wetlands (if there are any on your property). These areas are very important to woodcock because they provide ideal feeding grounds. When wetlands are drained, the ground becomes too hard for these birds to probe for worms, making feeding difficult.
11. Maintain areas of crops. Even small amounts of croplands are useful, especially as roost sites. Blueberry fields make excellent woodcock roosting and courting areas, and are also a profitable cash crop.
12. If small scale timber production is desired, then relatively short cutting rotations (approximately 40 years, but it depends on the type of trees) should be practiced. This not only can provide economic returns, but provides temporary singing grounds, and rejuvenates brood and nesting cover. It is best to remove or burn the slash from clearcuts to enhance these newly created openings for woodcock nesting, courting, and roosting. Encourage aspen clumps.
13. Maintain open grassy areas near water sources. These are prime nesting and courting grounds because of the water source and the food which is accessible here. These areas can be maintained by burning or mowing.
14. Maintain all water sources on your property. Springs, seeps, and other wetareas are a vital part of good woodcock habitat.
15. Be aware of activities and land use changes (future plans as well) on the lands adjacent to your property. Your management plan can be structured to take advantage of your neighbors' land and its future uses. With this approach, you can maximize the benefits for woodcock from your area by managing it for the habitat type which is in short supply, based on what your neighbors' land will provide.
16. Plant native shrubs around the perimeter of the maintained fields which were mentioned earlier. These will provide roosting and escape cover for woodcock as well as for other wildlife. Keep vegetation height to amaximum of 20 feet.
17. Plant shrubs around ponds, along streams, and in wet bottom lands or marshes. Often these locations are suitable habitat for woodcock as far as soil fertility and earthworm production are concerned, but lack adequate cover. Planting will make these areas much more attractive to woodcock. The following is a list of shrubs which would be appropriate:

    alder, hawthorns, gray dogwood, spicebush, silky dogwood, black haw, dentate viburnum

18. The shrub most often recommended of the previously mentioned plants is the alder. Alder can be intensely managed to provide varied types of habitat for woodcock. Clearings should be cut across (perpendicular to) streams or other water sources. This provides a moisture gradient along which different vegetation types and sizes will grow. In the case of alder, those plants growing nearest the stream will grow faster and in denser stands. These areas will retain moist soils in the summer, providing earthworm feeding areas and dense cover when other areas are dry. Drier portions of the strip will have slower alder growth, therefore retaining open singing grounds longer. Clean livestock manure can be dumped in moist areas to encourage earthworms for the birds.
19. Monitor the areas of alder on your property for age and growth form. As alder gets older, it will tend to grow more horizontal and be found in thinner stands. These stands are less attractive to woodcocks, which prefer thick, upright clumps of thinner stem alder plants. Cutting or burning of the older alder stands will rejuvenate these areas for woodcock cover.
20. Fence off these riparian areas.
21. Another method of regenerating alder or other plant cover is by using herbicides. This approach is much less labor intensive than cutting or burning and has little effect on earthworm populations. A recommended approach is using a backpack sprayer. Two applications on calm, cool days over a 2 week period when the leaves have reached full size should bring the best results.
22. Monitor the numbers of woodcock predators such as hawks and owls in theopen areas. Predation can be reduced by minimizing perches for these birds in and around fields where woodcocks are nesting and courting.
23. Control grazing of livestock on your property. Grazing can be beneficial formaintaining early successional stages, but excessive grazing will destroy bottomland habitats. A general measure of proper grazing intensity is not more than 30 grazing days per acre. A grazing day is defined as one head of cattle per acre per day. (For example, a 15-acre tract could be grazed by 15 cattle for one month.)
24. Control hunting on your property. Because of its restricted habitat requirements and unique behavior, the woodcock is very prone to over-harvesting. The key factors to monitor are the number of gunners, daily bag limit, timing of the hunting season, and accessibility of woodcock coverts. Excessive hunting during the courtship and breeding season can result in over-harvesting in an area.
25. Woodcocks migrate to the southeast and gulf states of the United States.Preservation of wetland areas in these regions would aid in the continuance of healthy woodcock populations.
26. Reduce use of insecticides in possible woodcock habitat.
27. Encourage farmers to leave fencerows and pastures with brush and briar patches.
28. "Preach" about the damage of wetland loss and "clean" farming practices to woodcock populations.
29. Set up units in State game agencies to promote the well-being of wildlife (e.g., woodcock).
30. Give monetary or prestigious incentives for landowners to maintain good woodcock habitat.
31. Encourage hunting clubs to educate their members on good woodcock management.
32. Encourage state wildlife agencies to provide literature about wildlife species (e.g.,woodcock).
33. Keep a record of changes in populations and relate changes to practices and their costs. Strive for cost effectiveness by making adaptive changes.

A contribution of Steve Boothe (1991) and Kenny Parker (1992)
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0321

This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 17, 2000.