Migration

Stopover

During migration animals often stop to rest and refuel before continuing on their journey. This is referred to as stopover, and one question we seek to answer is how frequently and for what duration woodcock engage in stopover during their migration. The images to the right show two examples of stopovers from our data collected to date.

We are also interested in how the human built environment may be influencing woodcock choice of stopover sites. We are specifically investigating if human light pollution, commonly termed "night light", has any influence on the stopover habitat woodcock choose (see graphic below). Night lit buildings are a common cause of mortality for migrating birds, and woodcock are the most common shorebird to collide with windows during their nightly migrations.

Graphic depicting an initial stopover location (larger woodcock in the top center), and other nearby locations (indicated by smaller woodcock) it could use with varying night light levels.

Example of a single stopover point in eastern Virginia used by a woodcock captured in upstate New York. The woodcock remained at the site for a day and then continued migration to North Carolina.

Example of a series of points collected during a 6-day stopover in southern Ohio by a woodcock captured in northwestern Pennsylvania. This woodcock continued migration to northern Tennessee following this stopover.

Migration Paths

Our satellite transmitters generally give us daily information on each woodcock during its migration, which allows us to reconstruct migratory paths for each bird. This will allow us to evaluate whether birds from different regions of eastern North America follow similar migration strategies, or if there is variation. The image below gives an example of migration paths from two birds marked in Canada that used different strategies for navigating their way around the Great Lakes.

Habitat Use

A major goal of our project is to understand how woodcock use habitat before, during, and after migration. So far we've found that woodcock exhibit a variety of habitat use behaviors, and below we give two examples.

This woodcock in central New York is exhibiting pretty classic habitat use prior to migration - it is clearly using young brushy forest cover and a mix of age classes.

This woodcock, which was originally marked in central Maine, used a small golf course woodlot in eastern Massachusetts as habitat during an 8-day stopover.