Advice on shooting woodcock, snipe and wildfowl during freezing conditions

Woodcock - Restraint during cold weather

I have been shooting Woodcock for sixty years, mainly in the Southwest. Cornwall is very passionate about its woodcock inspecting birds when they arrive and checking them throughout the season for their condition. If guns are not satisfied that they are in good condition, they reduce the shooting pressure especially in cold weather. However, in every strata of society there are rogues who are made aware of their non sporting practices, which includes shooting flighting birds at dusk. I have been out shooting through many cold weather spells, including 1962/63 which was a prolonged and severe winter. Woodcock were seen in odd places including feeding during daylight hours on lawns under trees and open ditches where there was running water. A common sight was watching them feed in streams beside quiet roads. It was always a pleasure to see these crepuscular birds at close quarters. This cold spell affected the passerines badly and my dogs were continually picking up Redwings which were close to starvation. Several locals in my area recall Starlings flying over our area in droves all day long and being lost out to sea. At night Green Plover’s plaintive cry was destressing but there was nothing that could be done. Woodcock shooting was curtailed and the bags the following season were not diminished from the average. Plovers tend to move ahead of the cold weather and Woodcock move with in the cold spell. In 1979 the then scientist and I observed what we thought was a different subspecies as we came across a number greyer looking birds rather than the traditional rufus colour. The taxonomy was checked but no anatomical differences could be found, but these birds had come from another destination, which we suspected was further east than normal, possibly the Himalayas. The mystery of the origin of these darker birds remains and I have not witnessed it since. I would point out that Woodcock do not breed in Cornwall and we do not have a resident population so we are not affected by the decline in the British population. Globally the population of Foreign Woodcock remains steady, see previous GWCT papers. The recent GCT booklet on this elusive bird stated that the UK bag was thought to be 140,000 per annum. I question this figure as I estimate the Cornish bag to be in the region of 2000pa. I did a survey in the late 1970’s west of a line from Newquay to Falmouth and came nowhere near the 2000 mark. In the 1982/3 season, a year when there was a ban, I recorded 513 Woodcock shot during the season. I would mention that I handled all these birds aging them and checking their condition. Nothing untoward was found with the birds all in good condition. The article referred to above gives good reason for the decline of the British breeding population. I also think dry conditions in spring and early summer leading to a change in the undergrowth for nesting and foraging has influenced breeding success. The BTO has recently published a paper on the decline of the worm burden falling by a third in the last 25 years. I think this should be factored into the decline of British breeding birds. A comparison could be made to my jointly published paper mentioned in BWP on worm density on the Lizard peninsula. In conclusion, the Cornish are so passionate about their winter visitor and cherish the excitement that it generates so in no way would they overshoot in this magic bird. They do not need to be told exercise restraint as they take great care not to over-shoot Woodcock. After all we only shoot non-UK resident birds.