Dunlossit woodlands on Islay have a small population of breeding woodcock, and one evening when I was there, we went out at dusk and saw several displaying males – flying over the woodlands giving their distinctive roding calls. There is also a larger winter population which arrives in late October and November, and is an important quarry for hunters. It was assumed these birds came from northern Europe, and I thought that the local breeders migrated to Ireland for the winter, and there might be other populations present or passing through. They are an interesting and enigmatic species – and Dunlossit is interested in their conservation and the good management of their habitat.
Photo by Laurie Campbell
During our satellite tracking studies on raptors, we hear of other projects or meet other researchers. One project which particularly caught my attention was the capturing and satellite tracking of a few woodcock in Spain. This was carried out by Joseba Felix Tobar-Arbular and the Club de Cazadores de Becada, the woodcock hunting association in the Basque country in northern Spain. One of the woodcock they had caught and satellite tagged, named Navarre, has migrated twice to Russia and back to Cantabria, and provided amazing insight into woodcock migration. I was very impressed by this bird, and got in contact with Joseba, who was most helpful and told me much about their project (Scolopax Sin Fronteras – Woodcock without Frontiers) and the satellite transmitters. This included a new type of 9 gram solar powered satellite transmitter designed by Microwave Telemetry.
Dunlossit Estate were also very excited by the travels of the Spanish birds and offered to fund two transmitters, which were designed for woodcock migration by Paul Howey of Microwave Telemetry. I decided to wait until after the end of the woodcock hunting season in 2009 before trying to catch some for study.
Catching Woodcock
To catch woodcock for ringing you use a spotlight and a large butterfly net. You need a really dark night, preferably at the time of new moon, with overcast clouds and hopefully raining, and a lot of luck. It’s an exciting trapping technique which I remember from my years as Warden at Fair Isle Bird Observatory. I decided to go to Islay on 24th February, as the new moon was next day. Donald James Macphee, the head keeper on Dunlossit showed me the best places for woodcock, and that night we set off – some of those best places held no woodcock at night, so we tried new locations and saw 3 birds but caught none; our only success was catching a snipe. The next day gave me a chance to check where the woodcock were in daytime in the woodlands, then at 8pm Donald James and I set off for new pastures, where the cattle were grazing in a valley, and we caught three woodcock out of five in about an hour in blustery conditions. The two heaviest were fitted with satellite transmitters and the other was ringed and released. I chose the heaviest birds as I thought they would be the most likely to be ready for migration to Europe, rather than returning local breeders (with fingers crossed). I decided to call them Lossit and Askaig – two local Islay place names. Already, we can see that the woodcocks prefer to feed at night on the grasslands grazed by the traditional cattle, because those are the best places for them to find their favourite food – earthworms – which are in the older cowpats! So the projects of good cattle grazing and woodcocks join together.
Lossit
Lossit was caught on grasslands in a valley below and to the east of Lossit farm, at OS grid NR422651 on the night of 25th February 2009. The bird was very plump and was already carrying a lot of fat on the breast (getting ready for migration). It weighed 340 grams and the wing length was 202 mm; the tail/bill ratio which is given as one of the ways of sexing woodcock was 1.5, which suggests this was a male. Transmitter 84126 was fitted to this woodcock, by a special lightweight harness and he was released at dawn in the same locality.
Lossit set off on her migration on March 22nd. By the 30th he had crossed the North Sea and was just south of Stavanger in southern Norway. From there he flew SE to near Mandal, where he remained throughout the summer: it must have been his breeding grounds. Sadly, we received no signals from Lossit after May 16th. We don’t know whether the transmitter failed or whether he was killed.
Click on the following link to see details of Lossit’s movements: Lossit 2009
Askaig
Askaig was caught on grasslands in a valley below and to the east of Lossit farm, at OS grid NR423652 on night of 25th February 2009. The bird was very plump and was already carrying a lot of fat on the breast (getting ready for migration). It weighed 338 grams and the wing length was 193 mm; the tail/bill ratio which is given as one of the ways of sexing woodcock was 1.15, which suggests this was a female. Transmitter 84127 was fitted to this woodcock, by a special lightweight harness and she was released at dawn in the same locality.
Askaig migrated to northern Russia to breed . She set off on March 25th and by the 27th had crossed the North Sea and was in Germany. She then passed over the southern Swedish islands and crossed the Baltic Sea to arrive in Latvia. By April 10th she had reached Estonia and then flew over the Gulf of Finland and into Russia. She reached her final breeding grounds on May 27th, after an amazing migration journey (point to point of her locations) of 4093 kilometres (2543 miles). She remained in this area throughout the summer but, sadly, we received no more signals from her after September 5th. We don’t know whether the transmitter detached or whether she was killed by a predator.
Askaig's incredible migration
Click on the following link to see details of Askaig’s movements in 2009: Askaig 2009
Funders wanted for more transmitters
The fantastic information from the two Islay woodcock suggests that we need to satellite track more woodcock, especially from other parts of Scotland to compare migrations, and we would also like to mark a few Scottish breeding woodcock to check on their migration and wintering behaviour (most likely to Ireland). The winter migrants need to be tagged in February 2012 and the local breeders in August 2012. Please get in touch with me if you would like to fund a transmitter, or transmitters, maybe on your own land or woodcock hunting area, to discuss opportunities. Email: roydennis@aol.com
