For an efficient management of huntable species, it is essential to know the numbers surviving at the end of the samples.

For sedentary game , this estimate is made by the departmental federations, by hunting societies and hunters.

Depending on the results obtained, it allows them to act  !

Reduction of samples, limitation of hunting days, creation of reserves, releases of breeders, aviaries, breeding, regulation of predators, etc ...

For the migratory woodcock, the results of studies carried out using ringed woodcock show that the vast majority of the numbers landing in France stay there to winter from October to March (i.e. 5 months).  ! This is confirmation that our country is among the very first for the wintering of the species.

Not surprising  ; thanks to its privileged geographical position on migratory axes, its climate, its forest area (170,000 km2, 28% of the territory).

Without wanting to treat the Woodcock as a sedentary species, it is now essential to have a good estimate of the surviving population before its departure on prenuptial migration, in order to be able, depending on the results, to adapt our samples for the following seasons.

This is the only solution we have to act.

All the more so since we know, thanks to Bécargos *, that more than 90% of adult or mature woodcock return to their same wintering sites in the following seasons.

However, despite my research, I have not found any trace of such an approach carried out by one of the actors of the Bécasse hunting world.  .Surprising  !

It will indeed have escaped no one, even if some analyzes forget this parameter, that the importance of the migratory number of the following seasons depends  : First of all the number of breeders, then the quality of reproduction.

The reproductive number of a species with a declining trend leads to its decline in the more or less long term.

My studies take into account not only all the known indicators, but also the expertise of wood, of primary importance before statistics and tables, essential to judge the state of the European Woodcock breeding stock.

When we immerse ourselves in her world, as I have done for many years, with the sole aim of protecting her and continuing to hunt her with our dogs, we notice these shortcomings.

For four years, in our territories  respective hunting sites, with a few woodcock hunters concerned, we count the number of surviving birds when the hunt is closed.

This counting makes it possible, with good precision, to assess the number of potential breeding herds for the coming season.

Not enough hindsight yet, but the first findings do not encourage optimism. Downward trend especially in this spring of 2018.

For all these reasons, we cannot do without an indicator which, visually, can allow us to assess with good precision the trend in the real state of the European breeding stock.

Hunting decision-makers must (quickly) implement this indicator. I have a protocol available to them.

Hunting has entered a new era. Some regret it others don't  ; but it is a fact. Today, woodcock harvesting is no longer a secondary objective because ...

The Woodcock is not endangered by those who collect it without  moderation, but by those who watch them act without doing anything.

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october 2018

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                                                                          Philippe Vignac

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* Bécargos  : Woodcock equipped with Argos beacons.