Migration

Update 15 April 2019: Migration slowed down the week of April 7th with spring snowstorms throughout New England and the Midwest, but picked up over the weekend or April 13th-14th as worm fronts moved north. An increasing number of birds are presumably staging just south of the winter snow extent in New England, but woodcock are slowly moving into Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Some birds have returned to their fall capture locations in PA, NY, and RI. We have also documented a number of cases of reverse migration - essentially birds migrated south likely due to frozen ground and or snow cover.

Of interest and excitement to us, a number of our woodcock marked in the southeast and mid-Atlantic this winter have initiated westerly migration routes, which is relatively uncommon in the literature. Notice the fan-shaped migration coming out of southeastern South Carolina. Another woodcock marked on the eastern shore of Maryland has migrated west, across two of the great lakes and is currently in Wisconsin. We cannot wait to see where these birds end up! All locations on the map below were collected after February 1 2019 - scroll down to see additional data from fall and winter 2018.

This map depicts the locations and migration paths of our satellite-tagged American Woodcock as they make their way from wintering areas northward during spring migration. The map includes data from birds marked during September and October 2018 at northern breeding areas, as well as birds marked during winter 2018/19 in southern wintering sites. These data will allow us to characterize important migration routes and stopover sites throughout eastern North America. Below we have also given some examples of interesting woodcock behavior that represent some of the types of data we will use to address our project research objectives.
Updated 15 April 2019.

This map depicts the migration paths of our satellite-tagged American Woodcock during their fall migrations of 2017 and 2018, color-coded to the state or province in which they were marked. This highlights the significant variation in migration paths taken by individual woodcock captured in the same location. All data were collected during September-December in either 2017 or 2018, and the stopover locations of birds we followed during 2018 are showed below. Map created by Erin Pickett.

This map depicts the locations and migration paths of our satellite-tagged American Woodcock from September to December 2018. The map shows all birds marked during September and October 2018 at sites throughout the species' eastern breeding range. More recent data beginning in January 2019 is shown above. Map updated as of 31 December 2018.

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 below show two examples of stopovers from our data collected to date.

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 - its 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.