The hunting of the woodcock and its future.
45 years of follow-up!
The study personal of Philippe Vignac.
45 YEARS OF MONITORING THE ABUNDANCE OF WOOD BECASES
SCOLOPAX RUSTICOLA
This study is the result of days of a hunt that I know well, practiced as a dilettante. I'm not a scientist and claim it ; on the other hand, the protocol that I used to measure Woodcock numbers in my hunting sectors meets the requirements of a scientific protocol.
Follow-ups carried out under the same conditions from one year to another (stable protocol), over a long period, 1970 to 2015 (45 seasons) . See table.
Sectors : The same.
Period : October 20 - January 31.
Exits* : Between 45 and 50 per season, well distributed over the period ; October 4/6 - November 14/16 - December 14/16 - January 13/15. Duration of outings 3 to 5 hours.
* From 1970 to 2000 25 to 30 outings per season, also well distributed.
studies carried out on:
3031 Different levies - 6020 Hunting hours - 1589 Trips - 18,800 kilometers
Woodcock count **.
Only Woodcock considered to be Different and New are counted. ; confidence index + -3%. Woodcock judged Cantonese *** lifted during other outings are counted separately.
They are not systematically sought after, but nevertheless represent 650 birds, 18% of the total lifted (3,681), with an amplitude of 13 to 30% depending on the season.
Note : These observations over 45 years were carried out with always good legs, real Bécassiers dogs with only their collar and their NAY bell n ° 0 around the neck, including the young people in the course of education, on the principal sectors of frequentation , noting all the hours of each trip even without birds.
The painting speaks for itself. From 1970 to 2005 the downward trend is regular but not too significant ; from 2006 things got seriously complicated.
An hour and a half to lift a BLD * from 1970 to 1975 . Three thirty today ! To confirm this, woodcock hunters who have observed, counted and noted rigorously for a long time make the same observation.
** The current counts of raised woodcock and hunting hours which are used to establish the value of the Indices Cynégétiques d'Abondance (ICA) each season, unfortunately no longer follow a fairly rigorous protocol. Too many hunters count as different Woodcock ; the surveys and surveys, the cantonments systematically searched and raised several times in the season, not to mention those who do not declare the times of the outings or they did not see anything.
If we add the fact that more and more hunters only go out when there are Woodcock, most often on information including meteorological information, it is not surprising that the values of the ICA have become over the seasons so optimistic ... therefore unreliable in order to be able to draw certain conclusions, in particular the state in which the European breeding population finds itself.
*** Cantoned. Daniel Raffejeaud method that I improved a little.
* BLD. Different Lifted Woodcock.
All data used is personal.
December 2017 Philippe Vignac