Woodcock: Fieldcraft and Quarry

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WOODCOCK FIELDCRAFT AND QUARRY

PROFESSOR COLIN TROTMAN

Quiller

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Copyright Š 2010 Colin Trotman First published in the UK in 2010

by Quiller, an imprint of Quiller Publishing Ltd British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 84689 052 9 The right of Colin Trotman to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patent Act 1988.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without any guarantee on the part of the Publisher, who also disclaims any liability incurred in connection with the use of this data or specific details.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Photographs by the author, except where stated: all photographs copyright of the photographer.

Book and jacket design by Sharyn Troughton Printed in China

Quiller An imprint of Quiller Publishing Ltd

Wykey House, Wykey, Shrewsbury, SY4 1JA Tel: 01939 261616 Fax: 01939 261606 E-mail: info@quillerbooks.com Website: www.countrybooksdirect.com

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Contents

Dedication

6

Acknowledgements

7

Introduction

9

CHAPTER 1

Woodcock Today

15

CHAPTER 2

Natural History

20

CHAPTER 3

Migration

46

CHAPTER 4

Fieldcraft and Woodcock Shooting

74

CHAPTER 5

Tools for the job

89

CHAPTER 6

From the Field to the Table

125

CHAPTER 7

Future Woodcock

139

Conclusion

167

Bibliography

171

Index

174

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CHAPTER 1

Woodcock Today

S

ome dedicated woodcock shooters would sooner give you their credit card number than disclose how well they are doing in terms of numbers shot – let alone the exact venue. There is little exaggeration here! This is the secrecy of tradition and culture. Twenty or thirty years ago the average ‘ordinary working man’ had little to choose from in relation to quarry species. Myxomatosis had virtually wiped out the rabbit population, and pheasants in many rough shooters’ gamebags were particularly rare. The woodcock, however, were seasonal visitors that cared nothing for organised shoots or the ability to pay. They came to the south and west of the British Isles in significant numbers and sprinkled themselves across accessible shooting ground – accessible, that is, to those who knew where to ask and how to ask. Thus, we had the tradition of freely available sport of a quality that most people would give their eye-teeth for. Sadly, to an overwhelming extent, those days are gone forever. Sport with woodcock is now far more difficult to acquire, as access to the land is far more restricted than it was a few decades back.

The woodcock, however, are more numerous than ever before. I know this for a fact. Through my ‘other’ obsession, fly fishing, I have built up a network of ‘woodcock obsessives’ in both Scotland and Ireland. We talk to each other, you see, before, during and after the season. This is a small example of the extent of some people’s interest. We share a love for our sport through our interest and admiration for our quarry.

From the end of October to the end of January, real shooting means going after the woodcock. On average, this means twice a week and sometimes from dawn until dusk. It is the sport of it all that entices me time after time. I care barely a jot as to how many I bag: I get my main pleasure from hunting them and flushing them. I find it far more satisfying to flush them in big numbers than to shoot them in big numbers. Like most rough shooters I do, of course, like to shoot well, as that is also an enjoyable part of the process, but the total number flushed,

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Woodcock Fieldcraft and Quarry

how many I put up, is equally important to me as it gives me some indication whether all is well with woodcock, or not. I thoroughly enjoy shooting woodcock but, conversely, I also thoroughly enjoy seeing them fly off unharmed.

More than being simply an annual event, this has become almost a pilgrimage: a return, year on year, to those wild, ragged, scrub-covered valleys, cwms and lowlands that I have visited on innumerable occasions since I was a boy. It is also a continuing link with my sporting heritage; the stuff of memories and remembrance. As mentioned in the Introduction, my infection was transmitted to me at a tender age by an

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Gone away!

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Woodcock Today

uncle who was, as I was to become, a total enthusiast for woodcock shooting. It was he who made sure that, for the rest of my life, the full moon in October would have greater significance than any young mind could have imagined. This association of woodcock migration to the lunar cycle simply acted to enhance the myth and magic that surrounded this annual event. It still does! Late October still finds me moonstruck. I am easy to find in the late evening from mid-October onwards. Inevitably, I am out in the garden viewing the moon, willing it to turn full. I usually have one eye on the weather as well – especially on wind direction. A favourable wind at this time of year would be one from the north or east.

But what of current trends in woodcock numbers? Woodcock are probably the least researched quarry species on the hunter’s list. There has been much recent debate, especially within the European Union, as to the woodcock’s conservation status. Those on the ‘green’ side of the debate almost inevitably claim a diminishing number of woodcock across Europe, whilst those on the hunting side of the hedge claim woodcock numbers to be at least stable and even increasing. Of greater concern perhaps is the fact that the woodcock does not lend itself readily to being researched, to be found, let alone quantified. Nevertheless, based upon the flimsiest of evidence, the European Union Draft Management Plan for Woodcock 2006 and 2007 claimed unfavourable conservation status.

However, Birdlife International/EBCC (2000) showed that, in the majority of European and Baltic countries with sizeable numbers of breeding woodcock, numbers were, in fact, stable. In fact, an increase in numbers was reported for Denmark, Ireland, Holland and Spain. In France, the monitoring of roding males since 1988 shows the French breeding population to be stable and probably increasing [Ferrand and Gossman 2001]. (Roding is the term attached to the courtship behaviours of male woodcock as they display in an attempt to attract females.)

Dr Yves Ferrand, a woodcock hunter and scientist for the Office Nationale de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage – the French Game and Wildlife Department – has argued recently that numbers are stable and probably on the increase [Ferrand (article on monitoring French populations) 2008]. His estimations, and those of his colleague Dr François Gossman, are based upon over twenty years of research across France and, also, are gleaned from the joint French–Russian Woodcock Research Project of which he is one of the leading scientists. Without doubt, in relation to European woodcock research, the French are leading the way. In addition to the work undertaken by the statutory game and wildlife department, there are also the extensive activities undertaken by the Club Nationale de Béccassiers (CNB) – the French Woodcock Club. In an average

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shooting season, through its members’ activities, the CNB will process (examine) woodcock wings and trap, net and ring approximately 3,000– 5,000 woodcock. This they have been doing for the past twenty years as, very early on, they recognised the absolute need to be able to defend their hunting of woodcock by being able to produce the counter argument via data collection and scientific facts.

The CNB has not only carried out such sterling work in France, but has spread the idea that we need like-minded organisations in all member states. Unfortunately, UK sportsmen have been dragging their heels as, prior to 2005, no such organisations existed in the UK or Ireland.

However, in 2005 I successfully persuaded a group of woodcock enthusiasts in south-west Wales to set up the Welsh Woodcock Club (WWC). In 2006 this was followed by the Woodcock Association of Ireland and in 2007 the emergence of a fledgeing Scottish Woodcock Club. These clubs are not simply gatherings of woodcock hunters. They all have conservation objectives and would only support the responsible hunting of woodcock. In 2006, through its membership of the Federation de Associations Nationales des Bécassiers du Palearctique Occidental (FANBPO) – the European Federation of Woodcock Hunting Clubs – the Welsh Woodcock Club was able to warn all of the other UK-based shooting organisations of the existence of the European Union (EU) Draft Management Plan for Woodcock 2006. Moreover, the club was able to respond to the draft plan through working collaboratively with the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC). This, I hope, was a wake-up call to all field sports enthusiasts in the British Isles. We simply cannot ignore the European Union, let alone the influence of the ‘greens’ and the anti-bloodsports organisations over it. This exercise was repeated in 2007 and again the European Federation of Woodcock Hunting Clubs (FANBPO) responded, as did the WWC. At the time of writing, the issue has not gone away as it is clear that the Director General for Environment has noted the criticisms of his team’s robustness in relation to the ‘facts’ they suggested and the whole process is under review. As surely as God made little woodcock, it will arise again and we must be ready – but what of actual woodcock densities?

In the winter of 2001 I was driving west along the M4 when very suddenly I became aware of a woodcock flying directly towards me in the inside lane. On it came unwaveringly, but I was convinced it would swerve at the last moment. It did not and, in fact, it flew smack into my windscreen. There was an explosion of feathers and it tumbled through the air over the top of my Land Rover and, through my rear view mirror, I saw it bouncing back along the motorway. Was this a sign? Around that

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time, I had read a piece in Shooting Times outlining the British Trust for Ornithology’s (BTO) claim that woodcock were in decline and should go on the amber list as a threatened species. What were they talking about?

There was no decline in numbers as far as I was concerned. I saw them everywhere, out hunting, flighting past my house at dusk, on the meadows after dark whilst out ‘lamping’ foxes and – perhaps more importantly as a dedicated woodcock hunter – my records showed no decline but, in fact, an increase in numbers year-on-year since 2000.

Most people only count the ones they shoot. I count the ones I see and I count every woodcock flushed on a shooting day and use a clicker to do so. I also count them as they flight out to feed at evening time, at the same locations each week, as do several of my friends at their chosen locations. This gives us a very good idea of how numbers are holding up across our region and elsewhere. On top of all of this assessment, from 2007, members of the Welsh Woodcock Club have been netting, ringing, ageing and counting woodcock feeding on meadows and grassland after dark. Since the year 2000 I have been collating information on woodcock numbers from across the UK and Ireland from other woodcock hunters and gamekeepers. There was – and is to date – no decline in woodcock numbers that I am aware of. In fact, over my shooting lifetime, numbers have increased. This could be shown from the detailed records I have kept since I was a teenager. Testimony to this view is also provided by other lifelong woodcock shooters.

But, what of that M4 woodcock? I did momentarily consider it to be a kamikaze woodcock sent by the Mother of all Woodcock to seek revenge upon me. Quite sensibly for once, I did not stop on the hard shoulder to run back to get it. However, it did spur me to write my first piece on Woodcock for Shooting Times. I challenged the notion of decline there and then as I would now. The woodcock is the success story of the quarry list. They are thriving and increasing. Within the last decade we have witnessed some staggering winter populations of woodcock. As we know from the earlier seminal work of Colin McKelvie – The Book of the Woodcock [1986] – nine out of every ten woodcock that we encounter in the winter, in the British Isles, are in fact migrants. In the 2005–2006 season I witnessed the largest number of wintering woodcock I have ever experienced. They simply came and came and came. We experienced what Colin McKelvie and I had been waiting for, that is, an exceptional woodcock season with incredible numbers of migrant woodcock resident in the UK and Ireland. Such a migration we had quite vulgarly called the ‘large dollop’.

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