Blogs

The recent extinction of the curlew in southern Scotland is a warning of the threat to rare species posed by the current trend for woodland creation.

It’s that time of year again, the waders are returning to Auchnerran, our Scottish demonstration farm.

The GWCT advises all those who wish to shoot woodcock to exercise particular care and improve their knowledge of local populations, thus enabling the shoot to minimise their impact on resident birds.

The following management recommendations are made based on our experience of the past fifty years and the body of research we have carried out at the GWCT.

GWCT research has helped increase our knowledge of woodcock in recent
decades, but that alone does not help support the species. Applying this understanding to develop conservation guidelines is our best chance
of reversing the downward trend in breeding woodcock numbers.

Take a closer look at our reserach on habitat for breeding woodcock, national survey findings for woodcock habitat and roding counts.

Moving into 2023, our ground-nesting birds need your help more than ever.

During prolonged periods of freezing weather, waterfowl and waders are less able to access food resources and, as such, become more reliant on their fat reserves. 

The GWCT has been carrying out woodcock research since the 1970s, with a programme of studies that has only intensified as it has progressed through the decades, each building on those that have gone before so that a more detailed picture has developed. 

A redshank ringed by the GWCT Wetlands research team in the Avon Valley in 2021 has been re-sighted in Northwest France, near Lannion.