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| American Woodcock by Bob Stymeist |
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service published its 2014 American Woodcock Population Status report in June, it includes data from 786 survey routes run in the northeastern U.S. and neighboring Canada. The survey results are intended to estimate the size of breeding populations of this species.
Within the survey coverage, the counts are in two regions, Eastern and Central. The 2014 survey shows no significant difference from 2013 in the Eastern Region, but significant decline (7.3%) in the Central Region. Overall, there was a significant decline trend for American Woodcocks in both regions between 2004 -2014.
Since 1968, singing-ground surveys for American Woodcocks have been conducted using the same protocols. No state or province has exhibited any long-term increases since 1968. The trend since the late 1980's is particularly troublesome.
Click to view the 16-page population status report here:
http://tinyurl.com/