One Show Woodcock

With plenty of woodcock around I have been out a lot over recent nights. On Thursday 28th Nov I made a retrap of a woodcock I ringed on my site near Llanilar on 9th Nov 2010. This bird was fitted with a geo-locator by Dr Andrew Hoodless ( GWCT) and Miranda Krestovnikoff whilst being filmed for a wildlife piece that went out on the BBC One Show later that year.

This bird was in great condition weighing 345gms, and once removed there was little sign that it had been carrying a geo-locator for the past three years.

The geo-locator will now be sent to Andrew Hoodless so that he can recover the data and establish its migration tracks. The batteries only last for 18 months so we won't get this birds full history since being tagged. However as this bird was tagged in novemeber, unlike all the other tagged birds that were fitted with geo-locators in the spring, we will be able to see where this bird went for the rest of its first winter carrying its tag. As the weather in winter 2010 turned very cold soon after tagging we might get some information on the cold weather relocation of this bird.

This tag was one of four that were fitted in 2010 as a part of my training for my unconventional marks endorsement, so far we have recovered two of these. In the winter of 2011/12 ten more geo-locators were fitted and in 2012/13 a further twenty. These were partly purchased by funds raised by the Woodcock Network.

I am very optimistic that we will make further recoveries of geo-locators on this site over the coming few winters. I will post details of this bird journeys and those of the other recovered geo-locators from this site shortly.

You can see more information on all things woodcock on our The Woodcock Network facebook page.