Migration
Update 13 April 2021. Movements are starting to slow down a bit as birds reach the northern extent of the breeding range, as far west as Minnesota and as far east as Nova Scotia. We've had a new confirmed nest from a transmittered bird in Connecticut, located on a ~60 degree slope covered in phragmites on the side of a capped landfill. While this might not be traditional woodcock habitat, the woodcock's exceptional camouflage still makes it difficult to spot (see photo below).
Using our interactive mapping tool, you can view the status of woodcock locations for a specific range of dates by toggling the slider below. During periods of major migration in the Fall (Oct 15-Dec 15) and Spring (Mar 1 through mid-May) we update the database regularly, but given transmitter upload frequencies we expect about a +/- 3-day precision on our location data. Learn more about how our transmitter technology functions on our research page.
Interested in how snow cover affects spring migration? Check out our snow overlay here
Interested in how snow cover affects spring migration? Check out our snow overlay here
We will archive updates for the 2021 Spring Migration below. For updates prior to September 2020, see our Migration Archives page, or, you can visit our data exploration page to visualize previous year's migration data yourself.
Update 31 March 2021. After several weeks of warm weather, snowpacks in Maine and Canada have now retreated to the point where woodcock can return in large numbers. Three transmittered birds have now reached Maine, and five birds have reached Canada (the northernmost in Nova Scotia). We've also had two birds from Vermont and Pennsylvania return to their fall capture sites this week, near Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge and State College, Pennsylvania.
We've also had numerous recent nesting events in southern states, areas typically considered the 'nonbreeding range'. In addition to anecdotal reports of nests and broods throughout the south this month, our collaborators at the University of Rhode Island spotted nesting evidence among two transmittered birds last week. Collaborators in Virginia and North Carolina were able to check both and confirm that these birds were nesting.
Update 22 March 2021. We're getting a little more northern progression as the snowpack melts, with our northernmost birds reaching Ontario and Michigan. This advance is much more apparent along the coast, as birds concentrate in New Jersey and Massachusetts. Migration initiation is also starting to speed up in the northern part of the wintering range, with roughly half of the North Carolina birds and almost all of the Maryland birds now moving north.
Update 16 March 2021. Our migrating birds are pushing steadily north as warm weather causes the snowpack to recede. Our northernmost marked bird is currently outside Buffalo NY, although there have been anecdotal observations of woodcock arriving as far north as coastal New Brunswick. There are a couple of interesting patterns to note in this week's data. First, there's been a significant buildup of birds in southeastern Massachusetts, likely due to the heavy representation of Rhode Island birds in our data and the recent snowmelt in the area. Second, we're starting to see AL-2021-11 display some backtracking movements in the midwest, bouncing between Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. This type of movement is common in the spring as birds reach the snow line and get pushed further south due to weather or lack of foraging areas, and we'll likely see more of these movements when we get intermittent periods of winter weather.
Update 8 March 2021. We've been seeing a lot more migration initiation in the past week, but as the snowpack remains pretty stationary there hasn't been all that much more northward progression. Our northernmost birds are still in coastal Massachusetts and Ohio, with a few more birds progressing into Indiana and New Jersey. All birds captured in Alabama, and most birds captured in South Carolina and Georgia, have now begun migration. North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland are the last three nonbreeding states where we haven't seen widespread initiation of migration yet.
Update 2 March 2021. This week kicked off a lot of movements throughout the southeast. Birds have begun to leave Florida and Georgia at a steady clip, along with a few odd migrants from Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina. Although most of these birds have only moved a state or two north, one bird has made it to Cape Cod, another to Ohio, and a third has reached NYC.
As in previous years, the northern progression of birds closely matches with the receding snowpack. Given the cold weather that's anticipated over the next week in the northeast, these northern birds will probably remain stationary for a bit. However, given the ranging movements that we're seeing from birds still remaining in the southeast, we're likely to see more birds initiate migration shortly and head up towards the edge of the snowpack.
Update 25 February 2021. We're just wrapping up transmitter deployments throughout the southeastern US, with new tags coming online in MD, NC, SC, FL, GA and AL. We're continuing to see some early northward movements, and most recently a female woodcock marked last fall in Rhode Island left her central Florida wintering area and is currently staging in South Carolina. If past year's are any indication, we expect things to really heat up, migration wise, during the first few weeks of March.
Update 16 February 2021. Over the past few weeks project cooperators have been working hard to deploy transmitters throughout the southeastern US. New transmitters have been and will continue to come online from North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, and Florida over the coming days. We've already seen some of the first early movements northward by a few birds. Perhaps this is a sign of early spring?
Fall 2020 Migration Updates:
Update 4 January 2021. As 2020 came to a close, the majority of our marked birds had settled into wintering areas from the Mid-Atlantic, throughout the Southeast, and west along the Gulf Coast. We expect some periodic mid-winter movements as birds adjust to incoming weather systems, or begin to shuffle around in anticipation of spring migration. During this 'off season', our transmitters switch to a less-frequent location schedule to save battery life, and we will likely post fewer updates between now and the onset of spring, however the mapping tool below will continue to update as new data come in.
Beginning in late January, cooperators will begin deploying new transmitters on birds throughout the Southeast, and we look forward to a new cohort of marked birds to track on spring migration, which we expect will get underway sometime in mid-February.
Update 21 December. Only one bird made a movement this week; QUE-2020-21 moved from its stopover location in Kentucky (where it's spent the last 6 weeks) and flew south to Mississippi and then Louisiana. We're still expecting some movement from birds in Rhode Island and Virginia (west of the Appalachians) as fall migration draws to a close.
Update 14 December. Migration is starting to slow down as most of our birds settle into their winter ranges. The last marked bird left Pennsylvania this week, leaving Virginia and Rhode Island as the last two states with birds that haven't migrated. Our most interesting movement this week was from bird #RI-2020-44, which became the first marked bird from Rhode Island to make it as far west as Mississippi.
Update 8 December. This week several migrants entered the south-central United States, including Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. Another migrant has made it to northern Florida (near Jacksonville) by flying off the coast of South Carolina. Our altitude readings suggest that, as of midnight on December 4th, the bird was flying 183 meters (600 feet) over the surface of the Atlantic.
Update 1 December. Birds are currently initiating migration in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia. Our early migrants from Quebec and Vermont are beginning to localize in the southeast US, likely in areas where they'll stay for the winter. Two birds also entered Tennessee this week. The first flew southwest from Ohio, while the second flew almost straight west from North Carolina, flying through the valleys of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Update 23 November. Migration has picked up in Pennsylvania, where about half of our marked birds have left for warmer locales. Our first migrant from Virginia this year has also checked in from South Carolina. It's still a little early for the rest of the Virginia birds to move, but we expect the remaining Pennsylvania and Vermont birds to initiate migration within the next few weeks as things start to get a bit colder.
Update 18 November. Migration initiation is continuing in the northeast, as more birds report having left Quebec, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. We're expecting a number of new transmitters to come online in Virginia and Rhode Island this week as the initiation dates for these birds gets closer. We're also seeing the first few birds start to settle into their winter ranges in the southeast.
Update 11 November. Birds continue to initiate migration in the northeast, with the last few birds starting to leave Maine and Quebec for warmer climes. A major movement on Halloween weekend brought several birds from Quebec west into Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois. Some may head back east as migration continues, but we expect that at least a few of these birds will spend the winter in the Mississippi Flyway.
Update 8 November. We saw major migratory movements associated with the remnants of Hurricane Zeta moving through the northeast around October 30th, and some of our more recent uploads have confirmed this. We currently have migrating birds strung out throughout New England, the mid-Atlantic, and into the southeast. As is typical for woodcock migration, we see some birds arriving at what might be their eventual wintering areas while others remain on the breeding grounds. We expect that now is the time for good numbers of migrant birds in southern New England and points further south.
Update 2 November. We saw major migratory movements late last week and over the weekend, with birds moving out of Canada and the northeastern states (ME, VT) and into southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic. These mass movements were probably driven by the weather system associated with the remnants of Hurricane Zeta, which moved through the northeast late last week. We currently have migrating birds strung out from Maine to Georgia, and we expect to pick up more information on migrant birds over the next few days. Resident woodcock from southern breeding areas like PA have been staying put for the most part, but we have observed one bird that left central PA on October 24th and arrived in central GA on November 1st.
Update 26 October 2020: Early migrants are continuing to move south out of Quebec and Vermont. One of these birds (VA-2019-47) is anticipated to cross Lake Ontario shortly. Currently our furthest moving migrant (VT-2020-17) has moved south from northeastern Vermont into central Virginia.
Update 23 October 2020: The first few migrants from Vermont and Quebec are beginning sporadic movements south. One bird summering in Quebec (VA-2019-47) has stopped over on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. This is a common strategy among migratory birds; this woodcock will rest, refuel, and wait for favorable northerly winds before it attempts to cross the Great Lake.
Update 20 October 2020: We've continued to see a few sporadic southward movements, including a few birds trickling out of Canada into the US, and one bird marked in northern Vermont that has migrated to Massachusetts. Most birds remain stationary, but we expect to have more frequent movements over the coming weeks. In general it seems we may see a relatively early start to fall migration this year, but only the birds will tell us for sure over the next few weeks.
Update 15 October 2020: Fall migration has officially begun, although we don't believe woodcock have yet begun moving south in large numbers. Over the past 10 days we saw our first movements of a few GPS-marked woodcock that traveled south out of Canada into NY and PA. Most birds remain stationary, and with transmitters shifting to a frequent data collection schedule today we expect to have more frequent updates, and movements, over the coming weeks.
Update 5 October 2020: We've been working hard to deploy this fall's transmitters in Vermont, Maine, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. As these new transmitters come online, their locations will be uploaded to the map below with frequent updates of woodcock locations beginning around October 15th.
Update 19 September 2020: We're currently about halfway through deploying this fall's transmitters, with collaborators working in Vermont, Maine, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. As these new transmitters come online, their locations will be uploaded to the map below. Using our new interactive mapping tool, you can view the status of woodcock locations for a specific range of dates by toggling the slider below.
Update 31 March 2021. After several weeks of warm weather, snowpacks in Maine and Canada have now retreated to the point where woodcock can return in large numbers. Three transmittered birds have now reached Maine, and five birds have reached Canada (the northernmost in Nova Scotia). We've also had two birds from Vermont and Pennsylvania return to their fall capture sites this week, near Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge and State College, Pennsylvania.
We've also had numerous recent nesting events in southern states, areas typically considered the 'nonbreeding range'. In addition to anecdotal reports of nests and broods throughout the south this month, our collaborators at the University of Rhode Island spotted nesting evidence among two transmittered birds last week. Collaborators in Virginia and North Carolina were able to check both and confirm that these birds were nesting.
Update 22 March 2021. We're getting a little more northern progression as the snowpack melts, with our northernmost birds reaching Ontario and Michigan. This advance is much more apparent along the coast, as birds concentrate in New Jersey and Massachusetts. Migration initiation is also starting to speed up in the northern part of the wintering range, with roughly half of the North Carolina birds and almost all of the Maryland birds now moving north.
Update 16 March 2021. Our migrating birds are pushing steadily north as warm weather causes the snowpack to recede. Our northernmost marked bird is currently outside Buffalo NY, although there have been anecdotal observations of woodcock arriving as far north as coastal New Brunswick. There are a couple of interesting patterns to note in this week's data. First, there's been a significant buildup of birds in southeastern Massachusetts, likely due to the heavy representation of Rhode Island birds in our data and the recent snowmelt in the area. Second, we're starting to see AL-2021-11 display some backtracking movements in the midwest, bouncing between Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. This type of movement is common in the spring as birds reach the snow line and get pushed further south due to weather or lack of foraging areas, and we'll likely see more of these movements when we get intermittent periods of winter weather.
Update 8 March 2021. We've been seeing a lot more migration initiation in the past week, but as the snowpack remains pretty stationary there hasn't been all that much more northward progression. Our northernmost birds are still in coastal Massachusetts and Ohio, with a few more birds progressing into Indiana and New Jersey. All birds captured in Alabama, and most birds captured in South Carolina and Georgia, have now begun migration. North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland are the last three nonbreeding states where we haven't seen widespread initiation of migration yet.
Update 2 March 2021. This week kicked off a lot of movements throughout the southeast. Birds have begun to leave Florida and Georgia at a steady clip, along with a few odd migrants from Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina. Although most of these birds have only moved a state or two north, one bird has made it to Cape Cod, another to Ohio, and a third has reached NYC.
As in previous years, the northern progression of birds closely matches with the receding snowpack. Given the cold weather that's anticipated over the next week in the northeast, these northern birds will probably remain stationary for a bit. However, given the ranging movements that we're seeing from birds still remaining in the southeast, we're likely to see more birds initiate migration shortly and head up towards the edge of the snowpack.
Update 25 February 2021. We're just wrapping up transmitter deployments throughout the southeastern US, with new tags coming online in MD, NC, SC, FL, GA and AL. We're continuing to see some early northward movements, and most recently a female woodcock marked last fall in Rhode Island left her central Florida wintering area and is currently staging in South Carolina. If past year's are any indication, we expect things to really heat up, migration wise, during the first few weeks of March.
Update 16 February 2021. Over the past few weeks project cooperators have been working hard to deploy transmitters throughout the southeastern US. New transmitters have been and will continue to come online from North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, and Florida over the coming days. We've already seen some of the first early movements northward by a few birds. Perhaps this is a sign of early spring?
Fall 2020 Migration Updates:
Update 4 January 2021. As 2020 came to a close, the majority of our marked birds had settled into wintering areas from the Mid-Atlantic, throughout the Southeast, and west along the Gulf Coast. We expect some periodic mid-winter movements as birds adjust to incoming weather systems, or begin to shuffle around in anticipation of spring migration. During this 'off season', our transmitters switch to a less-frequent location schedule to save battery life, and we will likely post fewer updates between now and the onset of spring, however the mapping tool below will continue to update as new data come in.
Beginning in late January, cooperators will begin deploying new transmitters on birds throughout the Southeast, and we look forward to a new cohort of marked birds to track on spring migration, which we expect will get underway sometime in mid-February.
Update 21 December. Only one bird made a movement this week; QUE-2020-21 moved from its stopover location in Kentucky (where it's spent the last 6 weeks) and flew south to Mississippi and then Louisiana. We're still expecting some movement from birds in Rhode Island and Virginia (west of the Appalachians) as fall migration draws to a close.
Update 14 December. Migration is starting to slow down as most of our birds settle into their winter ranges. The last marked bird left Pennsylvania this week, leaving Virginia and Rhode Island as the last two states with birds that haven't migrated. Our most interesting movement this week was from bird #RI-2020-44, which became the first marked bird from Rhode Island to make it as far west as Mississippi.
Update 8 December. This week several migrants entered the south-central United States, including Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. Another migrant has made it to northern Florida (near Jacksonville) by flying off the coast of South Carolina. Our altitude readings suggest that, as of midnight on December 4th, the bird was flying 183 meters (600 feet) over the surface of the Atlantic.
Update 1 December. Birds are currently initiating migration in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia. Our early migrants from Quebec and Vermont are beginning to localize in the southeast US, likely in areas where they'll stay for the winter. Two birds also entered Tennessee this week. The first flew southwest from Ohio, while the second flew almost straight west from North Carolina, flying through the valleys of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Update 23 November. Migration has picked up in Pennsylvania, where about half of our marked birds have left for warmer locales. Our first migrant from Virginia this year has also checked in from South Carolina. It's still a little early for the rest of the Virginia birds to move, but we expect the remaining Pennsylvania and Vermont birds to initiate migration within the next few weeks as things start to get a bit colder.
Update 18 November. Migration initiation is continuing in the northeast, as more birds report having left Quebec, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. We're expecting a number of new transmitters to come online in Virginia and Rhode Island this week as the initiation dates for these birds gets closer. We're also seeing the first few birds start to settle into their winter ranges in the southeast.
Update 11 November. Birds continue to initiate migration in the northeast, with the last few birds starting to leave Maine and Quebec for warmer climes. A major movement on Halloween weekend brought several birds from Quebec west into Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois. Some may head back east as migration continues, but we expect that at least a few of these birds will spend the winter in the Mississippi Flyway.
Update 8 November. We saw major migratory movements associated with the remnants of Hurricane Zeta moving through the northeast around October 30th, and some of our more recent uploads have confirmed this. We currently have migrating birds strung out throughout New England, the mid-Atlantic, and into the southeast. As is typical for woodcock migration, we see some birds arriving at what might be their eventual wintering areas while others remain on the breeding grounds. We expect that now is the time for good numbers of migrant birds in southern New England and points further south.
Update 2 November. We saw major migratory movements late last week and over the weekend, with birds moving out of Canada and the northeastern states (ME, VT) and into southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic. These mass movements were probably driven by the weather system associated with the remnants of Hurricane Zeta, which moved through the northeast late last week. We currently have migrating birds strung out from Maine to Georgia, and we expect to pick up more information on migrant birds over the next few days. Resident woodcock from southern breeding areas like PA have been staying put for the most part, but we have observed one bird that left central PA on October 24th and arrived in central GA on November 1st.
Update 26 October 2020: Early migrants are continuing to move south out of Quebec and Vermont. One of these birds (VA-2019-47) is anticipated to cross Lake Ontario shortly. Currently our furthest moving migrant (VT-2020-17) has moved south from northeastern Vermont into central Virginia.
Update 23 October 2020: The first few migrants from Vermont and Quebec are beginning sporadic movements south. One bird summering in Quebec (VA-2019-47) has stopped over on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. This is a common strategy among migratory birds; this woodcock will rest, refuel, and wait for favorable northerly winds before it attempts to cross the Great Lake.
Update 20 October 2020: We've continued to see a few sporadic southward movements, including a few birds trickling out of Canada into the US, and one bird marked in northern Vermont that has migrated to Massachusetts. Most birds remain stationary, but we expect to have more frequent movements over the coming weeks. In general it seems we may see a relatively early start to fall migration this year, but only the birds will tell us for sure over the next few weeks.
Update 15 October 2020: Fall migration has officially begun, although we don't believe woodcock have yet begun moving south in large numbers. Over the past 10 days we saw our first movements of a few GPS-marked woodcock that traveled south out of Canada into NY and PA. Most birds remain stationary, and with transmitters shifting to a frequent data collection schedule today we expect to have more frequent updates, and movements, over the coming weeks.
Update 5 October 2020: We've been working hard to deploy this fall's transmitters in Vermont, Maine, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. As these new transmitters come online, their locations will be uploaded to the map below with frequent updates of woodcock locations beginning around October 15th.
Update 19 September 2020: We're currently about halfway through deploying this fall's transmitters, with collaborators working in Vermont, Maine, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. As these new transmitters come online, their locations will be uploaded to the map below. Using our new interactive mapping tool, you can view the status of woodcock locations for a specific range of dates by toggling the slider below.
