I am hoping that someone can provide me with the answer to something which is perplexing me .... When I go out at night with the infra red night vision I am seeing large numbers of what I believe to be woodcock flying up in front of me ....I am saying that they are woodcock simply because of their "jizz" in monochrome ..... I am seeing anything from half a dozen to twenty or more of a night, but what bewilders me is that when I walk the same area in daylight, I never see one .... Does anyone else go out at night with night vision ??? The only other explanation which I can come up with is that these are passage migrants which simply stop overnight.
Hello Bill,
I have often seen woodcock moving out of damp woodland areas at dusk, (approx. 30 minutes after sunset) to feed in more open places. I think this is normal behaviour. What you are finding is probably their nightly feeding area.
Bill as Sandra says you are likely encountering the birds in their nocturnal feeding areas. Usually they will feed in damp/soft areas of ground but locally to me they prefer to rest-up in drier areas not always in woodland,I have found them tucked away under solitary briar patches for instance or even larger clumps of grass and thistle. Some years back I watched up to 12 a night feeding
on the site of an old manure heap- croaking and sqabbling as they ate,but during the day- not a sign apart from beak marks in the mud!