Bird ID please
- Thread starter Jessie
- Start date
Fishinfool
Member
Been many years since I shot a woodcock, but it looks like one?
Larry
Larry
Texas Star
US Veteran
Woodcock, or snipe. Prob. the former.
American Woodcock
American Woodcock Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Snipe have white chest, woodcock has a buff like the decedent.
American Woodcock Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Snipe have white chest, woodcock has a buff like the decedent.
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Skeet 028
Member
Woodcock.. My bird dogs seemed to hate the smell of woodcock. One wouldn't even retrieve them at all. Snipe are a different color. When woodcock migrate they usually do it at night by the light of a full moon
Eric300
Member
That's an American Woodcock, sometimes colloquially referred to as the Timberdoodle, the Bogsucker, the Hokumpoke or the Labrador Twister. But, mostly Woodcock, or, Timberdoodle around these parts. They live mostly in the woods and wetlands.
I always felt it a treat to see one....alive, of course. Don't see as many now as when I used to shoot or shoot at them.
Where I grew up they were called Timberdoodles.......good to eat but not easy to find. Most that we came upon were by accident while hunting quail. They didn't really occupy the same areas as bobwhite quail but occasionally we would flush one on the edge of the woods while hunting for Gentleman Bobwhite.
Don
Don
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Skeet 028
Member
We also found 'em in the kinda wet areas around the edge of the woods...while quail hunting of course. Ol Bob was great eating and great sport. We planted cover cops for 'em. The woodcock were only around for a couple of weeks. Quail started the 15th of Nov. By the 7th of Dec they(woodcock) had usually moved on because of cold weather.They were ok to eat but not like quail. My aunt loved doves and woodcock mom liked ducks and quail and my uncle liked to eat goose. Blick**. Don't know that I ever missed a woodcock completely...but a few did take 2 shots through the trees. With the bird dogs standing them you could see 'em before they took off. We also shot rail birds from time to time too and you'd get a few snipe while hunting them
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Tom Kent
US Veteran
When they flush they immediately have a large tree right behind them. Clever little devils.
Had an English Pointer back in the late 1960's that would lock up like a statue on quial, but would slowly wag his tail if he was pointing a woodcock. We always knew what was about to flush.
bill2000
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For those that never saw a timberdoodle walk, you're in for a treat Here's the wild and crazy guy
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46cQtyfoDBk[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46cQtyfoDBk[/ame]
One of the low spots of my teenage life. As a 16 y.o. interested in guns, and thinking that I had also had an interest in hunting, I was walking a line through my nearby woods with my friends.A bird flew up which I assumed to be a quail, and I instinctively fired with the borrowed .410 that I was carrying.It turned out to be a woodcock, a bird that I was completely unfamiliar with. I really felt that I had committed a crime against nature.
That ended my interest in hunting.
Those woods remain largely intact after 50 years, but unlike the years of my youth, one no longer sees quail or pheasants or guinea fowl or box turtles. However now, unlike then, there is some chance of seeing deer.
I am happy to say that adding a few strips of painter's tape to my sliding glass door, has now saved a number of birds and hawks.We would occasionally find a stunned one, and sometimes a dead small bird.
That ended my interest in hunting.
Those woods remain largely intact after 50 years, but unlike the years of my youth, one no longer sees quail or pheasants or guinea fowl or box turtles. However now, unlike then, there is some chance of seeing deer.
I am happy to say that adding a few strips of painter's tape to my sliding glass door, has now saved a number of birds and hawks.We would occasionally find a stunned one, and sometimes a dead small bird.
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Yup, woodcock. It's classified by the Fed's as a migratory bird, so I hope your barn didn't hold more than three rounds. What little breast meat they have is dark and I was never very impressed with it. I think their primary diet is worms.
The King of Game Birds/
With a lively .20 or .28 they are as fun to hunt as any gamebird and excellent table fare. But you have to be careful hunting them with a partner. They are as likely to fly between you, over your head and between your legs (or so it seems) as they are to flush straight away! I always tired to get them fairly close to the ground right after they flushed. I had a little Ruger Red Label 20 26 inch, IC/Mod that was perfect. I limited once and thought I had killed the Big 3.
How to Cook the King of Game Birds - The Atlantic
With a lively .20 or .28 they are as fun to hunt as any gamebird and excellent table fare. But you have to be careful hunting them with a partner. They are as likely to fly between you, over your head and between your legs (or so it seems) as they are to flush straight away! I always tired to get them fairly close to the ground right after they flushed. I had a little Ruger Red Label 20 26 inch, IC/Mod that was perfect. I limited once and thought I had killed the Big 3.
How to Cook the King of Game Birds - The Atlantic
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Texas Star
US Veteran
No such gun as a .20 or .28 gauge. Gauge isn't measured in hundredths of an inch like caliber. Drop that decimal point!
Reporters often make that mistake, usually with ".9mm" guns, but you are presumably actually interested in firearms, and should know better!
I've never had a chance to hunt woodcock but most who have say the taste is good. Probably depends on the recipe
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Eric300
Member
Where were on that one, Texas Star?? .410 lol
No kidding! I believe my dang autocorrect inserted decimals because I type so many work messages with percentage/decimals, although it did not pick up a decimal when I was talking about my beloved ol’ Red Label. So I may have typed myself.
I am always glad to have the error of my ways pointed out to me, and the ruder the better, because it reminds me of my married days, and leads me to be thankful for my freedom!
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Kurusu
Absent Comrade
What I find most interesting in all this. Is that American woodcock and Eurasian woodcock(which we have here and call "galinhola") are practically the same bird. Even the "dance" is the same.
Challenging to hunt. And good eatin' too.
Challenging to hunt. And good eatin' too.
Skeet 028
Member
I also used a Win 42 410 skeet gun for quail at least out in the open field and around hedge rows ....in the woods I used either a M-12 28 ga or a nice pigeon grade 20 ga M-12. We used to run up on woodcock and even snipe around the edges where the ground was pretty damp. Woodcock were dark meated birds and I thought they had a kind of earthy flavor...a little stronger than doves...something like a black duck. Haven't shot a woodcock in years...or a snipe either but there are lots of snipe here in the spring and summer. I once saw the tail end of a woodcock migration early one morning before full light. I was out skwerl hunting and there must have been 2 to 3 thousand birds come in to that little piece of woods in about 15 or 20 minutes
