By Dr. Peter Brookes
Photos by Dr. Peter Brookes
Timberdoodle. Mud Bat. Bog Sucker. Sky Dancer. Night Partridge. Timber Rocket. Little Russet Feller. You name it. I’m not sure another upland bird has as many colorful nicknames as the American woodcock.
More importantly, during its annual migration, it’s Virginia’s most plentiful upland game bird.
I’d never hunted woodcock in Virginia before, and wanted to give it a try this fall. I reached out to a local chapter of the national Ruffed Grouse and American Woodcock Society (RGS & AWS) for some ideas.
Cortland Burke from the H.C Edwards RGS & AWS Chapter responded immediately and suggested a hunt with the regional RGS & AWS coordinator, Grant Erhard, and their dogs, a German Wirehaired Pointer and a Vizsla.
We made plans to get out during the first split of the Virginia woodcock season in mid- to late-November. (The second split for Virginia woodcock is coming up December 27–January 20).
We met on a Saturday at a Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) Wildlife Management Area (WMA) about a week into the season. The weather was mild–although a tad bit on the warm side for the dogs, which put in some serious cardio during a hunt.
The three of us took particular precautions, such as starting later and finishing earlier and wearing lots of blaze orange, since that day was also the deer season opener. As a courtesy, we planned to hunt between the morning and evening deer hunter sits.
Wear lots of blaze orange, especially during deer season.
We were encouraged by reports that some “flights” (i.e., a loose flock) of woodcock had been pushed down from the north due to cold weather and were in the area. This WMA had a lot of good habitat as well, especially some low, wet areas with boggy conditions.
The woodcock’s favorite food is earthworms.
Soft, wet soil along bodies of water allows its long bill to pierce the dirt and pull out dinner. You may also find woodcock in abandoned apple orchards, where the fallen, rotting fruit also attracts worms.
Some promising woodcock habitat.
Woodcock can also be found in thickets of young-growth forests; don’t overlook shrubland and hedgerows, either. I’ve found them in other places, like the one that landed right next to me on the edge of a hardwood as if it wanted to start up a conversation and or ask for directions.
A shotgun is the right tool for hunting doodles. A 28-gauge or 20-gauge shotgun is considered ideal. Regarding shot size, 7-shot, 8-shot, or even 9-shot with an open choke (e.g., cylinder, skeet, improved cylinder) is a good setup for a bog sucker hunt.
It doesn’t take a lot of pellets to bring one down if shot well.
Woodcock are known to hold tight, which makes them an ideal upland bird for hunting with dogs. A well-trained pointer will scent a woodcock and freeze like a statue, allowing the hunter to get into place for the flush.
Getting birdy…
(While not absolutely necessary, a grouse/woodcock-trained dog can really make a big difference in finding and flushing woodcock.)
Doodles will also sometimes run rather than flush if pressed. If you’ve never seen a woodcock scoot–with their short, skinny legs and stout, oblong body and long bill–it’s something right out of a cartoon.
I’ve seen it several times and the “woodcock wobble” always makes me laugh. One time, in another state, I chased a just-flushed woodcock that landed near me across the forest floor, trying to get it airborne again. It just kept running, as if it knew I wouldn’t shoot it on the ground.
After giving it a hand-waving, Ah, fuhgeddaboudit…, I swear I could hear a tiny, high-pitched woodcock laugh echo through the woods. We’ll meet another day, Mr. Woodcock, you wait and see….
Speaking of flushes, the common perception is that woodcock flush almost straight up and then level out. That’s a fair assessment based on my experience, but expect some serious dog-fight-like aerial maneuvers during level flight, making for some challenging scattergun shooting.
Also interesting: A flushed woodcock may fly into the next zip code or get airborne for just a short distance—what some call a “false flush”—and land nearby to further evaluate the threat. The point is: Keep an eye on the bird, another flush may be possible.
The most amusing timber rocket flush is the so-called “face flush,” which happens when this very well-camouflaged bird holds so tight that you almost step on it, causing it to rocket skyward right next to you.
Talk about a heart-stopping moment!
Unfortunately, during about three hours in the field this time, all we could muster was one woodcock flush. Doodle hunting can be feast or famine. Indeed, a cold front that blew through the day before with precipitation could’ve pushed the birds south.
Despite our luck, there are a lot of reasons to give woodcock hunting a go, including getting out into our wonderful woods; challenging wing shooting; awesome dog work; and, good numbers of birds, especially during the migration, despite declining population numbers overall.
Marc Puckett, DWR’s small game project leader and a woodcock hunter himself, told me that he believes that Virginia’s (upcoming) second split historically provides better hunting since the cold weather up north can ice up woodcock habitat, causing the birds to head south.
If you decide to chase doodles, you’ll need a Virginia hunting license. Since the woodcock is a migratory bird, you’ll need a federal Harvest Information Program (HIP) number, too. It’s free (!) and available when you get your Virginia license online.
Since the woodcock is a migratory bird, the federal government sets the bag limit (three birds per day) in all states where doodles are huntable, from Maine and Minnesota in the North to Alabama and Louisiana in the South.
As Ben Lewis, DWR’s migratory bird program leader, shared with me recently: “With numbers being stable and lots of public land and access, hunting for woodcock is arguably the best upland hunting in Virginia today.” I think that’s right. Indeed, check out the DWR Explore the Wild online tool for places to hunt doodles.
Hey, let’s face it, sometimes upland hunting in Virginia–or elsewhere–is just a walk in the woods (and or in the field) with a gun. That’s OK: “Point and release”—like “catch and release” in fishing—can also be fun even if it leaves the game bag a little light.
Indeed, while there are lots of good reasons to chase these birds, I’ll chase woodcock again if for no other reason than creating that close connection with our rich Virginia and American hunting heritage and the great outdoors.
Dr. Peter Brookes is an award-winning outdoor writer who can be contacted at BrookesOutdoors@aol.com.
