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Joined: 08 Feb 2009 Posts: 1310 Location: Western WA

We have various and sundry beasts and fowl here in Western WA but nary a sight nor mention of woodcock. Not even listed in the hunting regs. Yet the other day I flushed one at my feet out of the brush along a tiny creek. Did any of you Midwesterners scare one out this way?

And no, I didn't take a crack at it. I was looking for a golf ball.

V/R

B.

Joined: 13 Apr 2015 Posts: 75

Brewster, you sure it was not a snipe. They tend to hang out in similar terrain.

Joined: 26 Apr 2016 Posts: 369 Location: Vermont

Interesting! So while in Montana couple weeks ago now we passed by some great looking woodcock cover. no one knew what a woodcock even looked like there. Except for a guy from Wisconsin that hunts them and said while brook trout fishing some of the trickles there in the summer he has seen them. I know its left of their range but he knows what a woodcock looks like.

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1842 Location: Central ND

I guess nobody told the woodcock he wasn't supposed to be there!!

...Fish have tails, birds got wings..

Thirty years ago my pal killed a Black Brant at Edwards AFB, smack in the middle of Mojave Desert opening day of duck. Others I know have taken OldSquaw and Barrows Goldeneye at Salton Sea,CA I've seen Harlequin and Oldsquaw in Marina del Rey, and there was a couple months ago a Yellow Crowned Night Heron , a LA and TX breed, here our bait dock.

We'll catch Snowy Grouper, Threadfin Bass and Popeye Catalufa, all equatorial and below species, here in the often cold So Cal water

I think it's cool to see creatures outside their normal range..Just think, " How many others on that course maybe saw that bird and never noticed it, much less knew what it was and that it "didn't belong" there?"

I would bet on it being a snipe, too, but for the fact that folks reporting a few years ago seeing a European woodcock at a local gun club somewhere in the US; I believe it was the NE. Rick, I believe you misquoted WC Fields in your first sentence. The correct quote is " Fish swim; men drink." Wink

Gil

Darn! You're right!
I Always get those two mixed up!...

Lots of snipe in western WA. I've hunted them and it's lots of fun!

Snipe are the BEST

Gentlemen,

Got to admit they are fun birds to hunt!

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Joined: 22 Jan 2015 Posts: 345

Speaking of odd sightings...I watched a grouse feed around my deer stand for about 5 minutes. Plenty of time to observe it. Was in a pine plantation, far eastern NC. I also saw pheasant rooster prowling around the same county. I suspect that pheasant was an escaped pet or farmed bird, cause he didn’t seem very cagey.