Pembrokeshire is lifting with woodcock. The recent baltic weather has pushed them in their droves to the county in search of unfrozen ground. Despite being known as the ‘snipe of the woods’, I’ve been flushing woodcock from the garden and adjoining scrubby field on an almost daily basis, something I haven’t done since the cold winter of 2010/11 when I was just a schoolboy.
There is a little stream that runs through the garden that, even in the hardest frosts, prevents scraps of land from freezing. Teal and snipe are frequent visitors, and it makes sense for the woodcock to be feeding here too. As for nearby covers, I dare not venture into them for fear of causing disturbance before we shoot them, but I’d guess they are bursting with woodcock.
So how could I bag a woodcock without disturbing the covers? Flighting,
