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Birds make epic flights to breed

Woody, the Shooting Times sponsored woodcock is still nesting in central Sweden

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By Will Finch

Thursday, 21 June 2012

Satellite tags reveal how far woodcock fly

A groundbreaking initiative by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) is demonstrating the incredible distances that the elusive woodcock travels each year to breed.

Earlier this year, the GWCT’s Woodcock Watch project saw satellite tracking tags fitted to 12 birds in locations across the UK, including Cornwall, Scotland, Norfolk and Wales.

The GWCT’s Dr Andrew Hoodless said he was astonished by one of the birds, Monkey, who has flown more than 6,200 km — twice the distance predicted.

Dr Hoodless said: “The tags are giving us extraordinary data and we have been amazed by the sheer distances that these birds can travel without stopping.

“Several of the birds have flown distances of more than 1,000 km in a single hop, flying non-stop for 24 hours. Monkey has travelled the fastest and furthest, and has settled on a breeding ground in central Russia.”

The rest of this article appears in the 20th June issue of Shooting Times.

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