Last night I was out on my site near Llanilar with my 'woodcock mucker' Terence Lambert. It was still and birds were very jumpy. After failing to get anywhere near 25 woodcock I decided that we should head higher up the site where I hoped we would have a better breeze to conceal our squelchy approach.
We deliberately bypassed a single bird on a large field with the hope that on our return later in the night it would be a little more settled. A few hours and 7 woodcock later we returned to the field. After a bit of a chase I managed to catch this bird, which was EW58652, ringed on 14th Nov 2008. This was the second bird caught on my first outing after completing my training with Tony Cross.
She? (longish bill) was caught as a juv in 2008, so had probably made 7 migration flights and a rough total of 17,500 km, not far compared with some species, but not bad going for a woodcock.
She looked in top condition weighing in at a healthy 332.8gms. This is why I go woodcock ringing!
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