Ontario woodcock reports 2014

[joe16]

How is the clean up hunt?

[Pigeoneater5000]

Clean up hunt was good. We have a rooster only rule in our group so it makes it More challenging to obtain our limit. There was A LOT of hunters then in previous years.

[BSP1]

Yes. And a lot of dead birds left to waste in places where downed birds would have been easy to find. I think there's a lot of guys that just shoot them and leave them after they get their limit...jerks

[Mount Sweetness]

I bet there were all kinds of cripples as well. Yes? Were there plenty of points where the bird then wouldn't flush?

[BSP1]

I bet there were all kinds of cripples as well. Yes? Were there plenty of points where the bird then wouldn't flush?

I think more like guys blasting them out of the sky and leaving them....I found a lot of birds shot up bad and just left....they didn't look like they died from a crippling shot.

Yes a lot of runners with no flush

[welsh]

Hey! I thought this was a woodcock thread! You know, little brown bird, big long bill?

Yes. And a lot of dead birds left to waste in places where downed birds would have been easy to find. I think there's a lot of guys that just shoot them and leave them after they get their limit...jerks

I've found this recently at Fingal. Birds released Tuesday, on Wednesday after the crowds cleared I ran my dog along a hedgerow & she deked in and made a hard flush on a hen with no head. That bird was freshly dead & still warm ... she knows the difference & won't go in to flush a carcass. It was right at the edge, where even the most incompetent dog could have found it. And no predator in the world eats the head and leaves the body intact. But a close shot will take the head clean off a pheasant....

Found two dead hens along that hedgerow, right at the edge. I'm betting guys shoot the hens and then trade up for roosters. It's asinine.

[BSP1]

Hey! I thought this was a woodcock thread! You know, little brown bird, big long bill?



I've found this recently at Fingal. Birds released Tuesday, on Wednesday after the crowds cleared I ran my dog along a hedgerow & she deked in and made a hard flush on a hen with no head. That bird was freshly dead & still warm ... she knows the difference & won't go in to flush a carcass. It was right at the edge, where even the most incompetent dog could have found it. And no predator in the world eats the head and leaves the body intact. But a close shot will take the head clean off a pheasant....

Found two dead hens along that hedgerow, right at the edge. I'm betting guys shoot the hens and then trade up for roosters. It's asinine.

Yes I know. Sorry... But I didn't start the comments on the clean up hunt!

In regards to woodcock on pelee.... Guys claim to have flushed some... But I never saw any

[Farmer G]

Owls and hawks eat the heads first. Watched a Redtail eat a head of a rooster a couple years back and just leave the rest. Climbed out of my stand and took the bird home.

[BSP1]

Hey! I thought this was a woodcock thread! You know, little brown bird, big long bill?



I've found this recently at Fingal. Birds released Tuesday, on Wednesday after the crowds cleared I ran my dog along a hedgerow & she deked in and made a hard flush on a hen with no head. That bird was freshly dead & still warm ... she knows the difference & won't go in to flush a carcass. It was right at the edge, where even the most incompetent dog could have found it. And no predator in the world eats the head and leaves the body intact. But a close shot will take the head clean off a pheasant....

Found two dead hens along that hedgerow, right at the edge. I'm betting guys shoot the hens and then trade up for roosters. It's asinine.

On pelee there were more rooster found dead then hens.... So I bet it was guys limiting out and just shooting

[Pigeoneater5000]

Sorry I didn't mean to hijack the thread. The woodcock cover on Pelee is great. To be honest I am surprised we didn't flush more...but again we were there for pheasants not woodcock.