Few hours woodcock hunting in the UK

[devon deer]

Sorry for the poor quality photo, couldn't get my phone to stand up!
High winds and rain didn't make for a productive time but it was exciting stuff.


They are a beautiful bird and taste great


We couldn't find 1 woodcock and also lost a pigeon


Some interesting fungus


A typical granite tor on Dartmoor


Haytor on Dartmoor, a tourist attraction


Waiting for dark when the ducks flight in, except they didn't the area has had so much rain they didn't come in, what didn't help was one of my young friends was seen (if you zoom in you can see him wearing a white bobble hat!), so the 3 ducks that were dropping in saw him and flew off



Cheers and happy new year

Richard

 

[duckhunt]

Looks like alot of fun. I've never shot one but always wanted to. I bet they are a tough little target to hit.

 

[tarheel]

A nice group of timber doodles Richard, and are those sporting wood pigeons? Happy New Year!

 

[Bullshot]

Very cool, would love to see more UK hunting photos. Are these the same woodcock as found in the U.S? I walked up on one the other day and almost caught it with my hat! They are almost impossible to see until they walk or fly. And they never seem to fly far so you can get 2, 3, sometimes more flushes from a single bird.

 

[RyGuy]

That looks like a beautiful place to hunt

 

[Birdbander]

Very cool, would love to see more UK hunting photos. Are these the same woodcock as found in the U.S? I walked up on one the other day and almost caught it with my hat! They are almost impossible to see until they walk or fly. And they never seem to fly far so you can get 2, 3, sometimes more flushes from a single bird.

Here's an interesting article. Al Stewart recently retired from our DNR here in Michigan but was the head of our woodcock banding program. He had great stories and photos to share of trips to the UK when we'd have bander meetings.

 

[Brad W]

I always enjoy seeing the different places folks hunt. Cheers!

 

[devon deer]

The woodcock is such a challenging bird to hunt, you can almost step on them before they fly, then its a case of 'shoot em before they shit' because as soon as they do they strart to 'chink', then its a guessing game!
Once they are away fly usually fly some distance, we found most hunkered down in thick gorse.
We have some resident woodcock, but most fly down from Scandinavia, it has been really cold this year, and so we had quite a few down south, but it appears they have migrated even further south and we are seeing less.

The wood pigeon, we shot them when we got out of the 'ancient' woodland into the fields, but it was gale force winds and we reckon they were moving at 60mph+, quite a challenge!

We will go back a couple more times before the season ends on 31st January, so back hunting deer tomorrow

Cheers

Richard

 

[Kiwi]

Looks like fun. Great photos too! Thanks for posting.

 

[Birdbander]

American, European Woodcock Hunting Contrasted | Woodcock population and young forest habitat management - Timberdoodle.org

timberdoodle.org

Sorry, the article never attached.