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6 minutes ago, Seadog1408 said:

Well I might be wrong but I was led to believe by an old boy that in our local area the migratory birds arrive in January the ones seen before then are the local birds and should be left so as to keep up numbers.

Yes,your wrong.

Google Woodcock and you will get some superb info on their movements over to the UK,and within the UK.

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14 minutes ago, sako751sg said:

Zeros times,can you confirm how many times you have shot woodcock in Aberdeenshire?

 

None, but you quoted and questioned me on my reason for not shooting woodcock before January , now as I am based and shoot here in East Sussex the woodcock here are the topic not the woodcock in Aberdeenshire, so having done some research at your request I found this page

https://www.gwct.org.uk/policy/position-statements/shooting-woodcock/

and it does seem to cover not shooting resident woodcock as the numbers are declining, now as I mentioned a local old boy had said to leave them until January when our migration birds seem to arrive here in East Sussex (not Aberdeenshire) so his idea holds water in my opinion.

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2 hours ago, Seadog1408 said:

Well I might be wrong but I was led to believe by an old boy that in our local area the migratory birds arrive in January the ones seen before then are the local birds and should be left so as to keep up numbers.

Your Old Boy is badly mistaken. Migratory woodcock start coming over in October and do so for several months.

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41 minutes ago, ditchman said:

norfolk they rekon first full moon in october......if you stand on the dunes they will flit over you...

I always thought that the first full moon in November saw the main 'Fall' of woodcock.

OB

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The temperatures in Scandinavia and East European countries has some bearing.  At the moment Poland and East German..Latvia, Estonia are having a chilly time.  I have been there when no way would you touch or pick up a metal object without gloves. Woodcock therefore move our way and like the warmth of the West Coast.

As far as shooting a few, then I see no problem we have been shooting woodcock for many years and I have seen numbers rise and fall over about 65yrs of being in the countryside.

They are very good eating if you know how to cook them, but that goes for partridge, pheasant etc.

Our resident population suffer more from predation and like all ground nesting birds an over population of badgers doesn't help, but none of these scientists dare mention that.

Edited by Walker570
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On our shoot Woodcock are left until the first shoot after the November full moon.Its then down to the individual gun if they want to shoot them.Some do some don't but all we ask is that only safe shots be taken.Having said that there were a number of them flushed on our last shoot in our Christmas Tree plantation.

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They have come into our area in East Kent in some numbers during the last 3 weeks. We did 6 heavily wooded drives today and had Woodcock out of 5 of them. At one point we had 3 in the air together over the standing guns, who could only wave their hats as we dont shoot them until December. We started at 9-30 and finished at 2-30; didnt keep a precise count, but would guess we flushed between 15 and 20 during the day.

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On 18/11/2018 at 21:00, Old Boggy said:

I always thought that the first full moon in November saw the main 'Fall' of woodcock.

OB

Aye,was always the moon for the big move but quite a few come with the October one.

 

Most woodcock ive seen locally for a good few years although thats not whilst shooting.When we get a wee bit harder weather will see what numbers are in their usual haunts.

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2 were put up on the 1st drive, then another on the 4th Thursday just gone, then out walking the dog Friday 2 more were put up within a few yards of each other. So seems to be few about. 

 

But no shooting any. 

Edited by Dougy
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Quite a few on local BIG shoot but they aren't being shot. Was shooting with a fellow last weekend whose stetson style hat was ringed with hundreds and hundreds of tiny pin feathers. He said that over on the west coast they have a shoot where they shoot nothing but woodcock, so the numbers must be there.

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On 24/11/2018 at 21:03, Bell said:

My favourite bird along with wild duck......flushing out of thick cover or flighting out of forestry blocks.....on the plate it has no equal..

9334DBCB-E970-43AB-9C02-ED970139F121.jpeg

 

Flighting out of forestry blocks u have to be very careful; not to overshoot, as they do tend to be more ur resident birds and u can very quickly spook a lot of birds in a short time.

 

I rarely lift my gun to 1 now and never shout 1 on a driven day.

Personally i don't think shoots shooting more than once a week should be shooting woodcock.

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Don’t believe that at all mate, most of the birds coming out of the forestry blocks where I shoot will undoubtedly be migrants, yes there will be some homegrown amongst them but the sheer numbers we see are migrants.  Shooting as we do doesn’t disturb them and we have good numbers year on year........this year seems to be very good....

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2 hours ago, Bell said:

Don’t believe that at all mate, most of the birds coming out of the forestry blocks where I shoot will undoubtedly be migrants, yes there will be some homegrown amongst them but the sheer numbers we see are migrants.  Shooting as we do doesn’t disturb them and we have good numbers year on year........this year seems to be very good....

I agree, and how anyone can say that a particular bird is a resident or a migrant is hard to imagine.

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7 hours ago, JDog said:

I agree, and how anyone can say that a particular bird is a resident or a migrant is hard to imagine.

 

Absolutely,nobody knows if its residents or migratory birds they are shooting,especially from late October till the end of the season.To say "shooting them before January" is poor form males no sense at all.

Im out near every day,and numbers are on par and probably above what most years are especially given the mild weather.Still not raised the gun to them but will be for sure.

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