Letters

LETTERS MAY BE EDITED FOR CLARITY OR SPACE

WHOPPING WOODCOCK

In his beguiling book, A Bird Watcher’s Note Book: Studies of Woodcock, Snipe and Other Birds, originally published in 1930, the sportsman and naturalist JW Seigne describes two distinct-looking woodcock often bagged in Ireland as being either the grey type or the red type. He explains how sportsmen of the day regarded the larger, grey woodcocks as having arrived in Ireland on south-east winds after migrating from the far north.

Some woodcock hunters in France agree with Seigne and refer to these big grey birds as grand gris, again supposing they herald from Siberia. However, according to my woodcock scientist colleagues at the GWCT, several woodcocks satellite-tracked to western Siberia were similar physically to other tagged birds of the ‘normal’ chestnut colour.

So, where do these larger, greyish woodcock come from? Currently there is no robust scientific evidence to explain regional differences in plumage or body size, which probably reflects natural variation on a sliding scale. However, it is interesting that tawny owls breeding in northern latitudes are more likely to exhibit a grey plumage, while for those breeding farther south brown predominates.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

In mid-December, I was hunting woodcock with my spaniel in woodland in north Dorset, when one of our small party dropped a ’cock as it jinked down a ride. When my spaniel delivered it, I noted the bird’s large size, grey plumage and strikingly long bill – we appeared to have bagged a grand gris.

For more than a decade I’ve taken various body measurements from woodcock I’ve shot. My guest, Richard Taylor, who shot the grey bird, kindly allowed me to take it home. On comparing its biometrics against my records it was indeed a heavy bird (354g), with a bill-length of 84mm from feather edge to tip.