The density and distribution of woodcock wintering in Cornwall, England.

Abstract

Spot-lamp searches were conducted for woodcock on pasture fields at night during four successive winters (1988-92) on the Lizard Peninsula, west Cornwall. During 1990/91 and 1991/92 samples of birds were caught and ringed. These searches were used to calculate densities before and after shooting occurred on three study areas. Two further independent density estimates were calculated for one of the areas from counts of the number of birds flushed during shooting and from the number of ringed birds recovered. Certain fields were favoured by the woodcock for feeding and ten ringed birds were recaptured in the same fields in which they were originally caught. However, six birds which were recaptured in different fields had moved distances of between 705 m and 1420 m. The proportion of ringed birds shot was lower than expected in 1991/92 and it is likely that this was due to immigration and emigration.