We radio-marked 150 male American woodcock (Scolopax minor) during 1987–1989 and estimated period survival for 1 April – 15 June. Survival varied from 0.690 (1989) to 0.924 (1988), with a 3-year mean (95% confidence interval) of 0.789 (0.693–0.885). Woodcock were killed by raptors (n = 14, 53.8%), mammals (n = 1, 3.8%), or unknown predators (n = 5, 19.2%); six deaths (23.1%) were from miscellaneous causes, including three (11.5%) from entanglement in the transmitter harness. A composite survival estimate based on telemetry studies for the breeding, postbreeding, and wintering periods was 0.471 (0.789 × 0.923 × 0.647). The calculated survival rates were 0.881 for the spring migration period and 0.853 for the combined hunting and fall migration period. In a proportional hazards model, body mass at capture was not related to survival. Forest type (hardwood versus conifers) affected survival (P < 0.016), which was lower for woodcock using mostly conifer sites. Survival was related positively to mean snow depth in December (P < 0.038), negatively to snow depth in April (P < 0.046), and positively to minimum temperature in December (P < 0.054) and April (P < 0.066) in some analyses.

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Numbers of American woodcock (Scolopax minor) males counted on the annual singing ground survey (SGS) have declined over the last 35 years at an average rate of 2.3% per year in the Eastern Region and 1.8% per year in the Central Region. Although hunting was not thought to be a cause of these declines, mortality caused by hunters can be controlled. Furthermore, there has been no research on effects of hunting mortality on woodcock populations at local and regional levels on the breeding grounds. We used radiotelemetry to determine survival rates and causes of mortality for 913 woodcock captured during fall 1997-2000 on 7 areas in Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, USA. Three of 7 sites were closed to hunting. For all sites and all years combined, 176 woodcock died, and 130 were censored, of which 39 were censored mortalities. Predation was the major (n = 134, 76%) cause of mortality. Mammals accounted for 56% of the predation, raptors accounted for 25%, and 19% was attributed to unknown predators. On hunted sites, 36% of the total mortality (n = 102) was caused by hunting, 63% by predation, and 1 bird starved. Kaplan-Meier survival curves did not differ between hunted and nonhunted sites among years (P = 0.46). Overall, point estimates of survival did not differ (P = 0.217) between hunted (SR = 0.636, SE = 0.04) and nonhunted sites (SR = 0.661, SE = 0.08). We modeled hazard rates from hunting and natural mortality events using program MARK. Akaike's Information Criterion supported using a model with common constant hazards from both hunting and natural causes for groups of sites. Groupings of sites for hazard rates from natural causes were not influenced by whether a site was hunted or not. Models detected no effects of woodcock age and sex (P = 0.52) on survival. Proportional hazards models comparing hunted and nonhunted sites found no effects of age and sex (P = 0.45), interactions of age, sex, capture weight, and bill length (P ≥ 0.269). Our data suggest that current hunting regulations are not causing lower survival of woodcock. JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT 69(4):1565-1577; 2005

The American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) is one of the earliest ground-nesting birds in the northeastern United States. In Maine, nesting begins in early April when temperatures can drop below freezing and significant snowfall can accumulate. Nests are usually in open woods, where eggs are laid on the ground in a shallow depression (Pettingill 1936, Mendall and Aldous 1943, Sheldon 1967). Peak hatching occurs in early May (Dwyer et al. 1982), when temperatures are cool and precipitation is common. Woodcock chicks are dependent on the female for most of their food for at least seven days after hatching (Gregg 1984). During cool, wet weather, chicks require constant brooding by females; prolonged periods of inclement weather may lead to substantial mortality of chicks (Dwyer et al. 1988). This reproductive strategy led Pettingill (1936), Mendall and Aldous (1943), and Sheldon (1967) to speculate that renesting by American Woodcock is common, although they could not document this behavior. Renesting would seem necessary to maintain adequate recruitment because American Woodcock clutches are small (3-4 eggs), nest success is 50-67% (Mendall and Aldous 1943, Gregg 1984), and chick survival is 59% (Dwyer et al. 1988). Renesting after loss of a clutch has been documented for other shorebirds, including the Eurasian Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola; Hirons and Owen 1982), plovers (Charadrius spp.; Warriner et al. 1986), Spotted Sandpipers (Actiris macularia; Lank et al. 1985, Oring and Lank 1986), Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus; Brunton 1988), and Rednecked Phalaropes (Phalaropus lobatus; Reynolds 1987). Some shorebird species are polyandrous (Schamel and Tracy 1977, Lank et al. 1985, Oring 1985, Reynolds 1987), and a few species are double-brooded (Brunton 1988). Only circumstantial evidence of late-nesting birds (Ammann 1967, Parris 1983) and prolonged