Around 100,000 breeding Woodcock in the UK increase to in excess of a million birds wintering here, as birds from Eastern Europe move west in search of milder conditions. These birds spend the nights feeding (largely on earthworms) on farmland, pasture and the Ings grasslands after dark, before then spending the daytime in dense cover in the undergrowth of hedgerows and woodlands. Here their cryptic camouflage comes into its own as they melt away into the leaf litter on the woodland floor. Although you’re unlikely to spot one on a visit to the reserve (unless you’re present at dusk when they can sometimes be seen flying around the Wheldrake car park area), they usually appear after dark and are found using our thermal camera’s which have helped us to understand their requirements and habitat use in the local area.
In December, prior to the floods, we caught and ringed a Woodcock and Jack Snipe on Wheldrake Ings, and just four days later we recaught both of those birds together over 5 km away on pasture fields near Elvington Airfield, having been displaced from the reserve due to the extensive flooding. Knowing just how birds might move round the landscape and surrounding fields in response to flooding and other conditions helps us better target conservation measures, to ensure other suitable and equally vital habitats are protected and managed for these rather secretive and previously poorly understood and under-recorded species.
