Wonderous woodcock

You need your wits about you if you want to connect with these most prized little birds. Steve Rawsthorne explains how to shoot them both effectively and responsibly

- Steve Rawsthorne

Scolopax rusticola, known to most of us as woodcock, is one of the most prized of quarries among shooting folk, probably because of its zig-zagging flight but also, I think, because when it gets up, it does so silently, with its softer feathers taking us by surprise. You can never really predict where and when a woodcock might be lurking in a wood. I have often had them spring out just six or seven feet from me when walking up or stalking in woods. Happy is the sportsman with a pin feather in his hat at the end of the day.

Responsible shooting

If we are going to shoot them, we need to do so responsibly. It is estimated that there are around only 55,000 breeding pairs of woodcock in the UK and the number has been declining, possibly due to habitat loss, due to the maturation of conifer woods planted in the ‘60s and ‘70s. In winter, we usually get a fall of woodcock from Eastern Europe and Finland, which may take the numbers in the UK to around 1.5 million. The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust suggests not shooting woodcock until the immigrants arrive and, as responsible shooters and conservationists, I suggest we follow that advice.

Woodcock thrive in mixed woodland and younger conifer plantations. If you want to increase the chance of seeing woodcock on your shoot, opening up clearings of an acre or two in larger woods can help and good wide rides are very attractive to them too. On our little family shoot, back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Forestry Commission land with multi-aged plantations and wide open areas, we used to see good numbers of woodcock, the resident males roding (doing their territorial display, flying in a large circular pattern).