United States occur here. Woodcocks are common in 

 Louisiana from mid-October to mid-February (Lowery 

 1974a), with highest numbers occurring around the 

 second week in December. Birds that winter in Louisi- 

 ana are probably from areas west of the Appalachian 

 Mountains (Sanderson 1977). 



Woodcocks winter in all parts of Louisiana except 

 in the coastal marshes (St. Amant 1959). They frequent 

 piney woods and prairies, but most woodcocks occur 

 in bottomland hardwoods (Evans 1976), where fertile 

 alluvium and moist, sandy soils predominate (Pursglove 

 and Coster 1970). The main factor controlhng the use 

 of the southwestern Louisiana prairies and coastal 

 marshes is the lack of cover (St. Amant 1959). Fringe 

 areas of highlands are excellent habitat. During ex- 

 tremely cold weather, the prairies and coastal areas of 

 southwestern Louisiana are used extensively by wood- 

 cock (St. Amant 1959, Sanderson 1977). 



Woodcock have three general habitat requirements: 



(a) forest openings for singing and nocturnal roosts; 



(b) fertile, generally poorly drained soils with many 

 earthworms; and (c) vegetation for diurnal and noctur- 

 nal cover (Sanderson 1977). In winter, birds prefer 

 alluvial floodplains with a brushy understory. Favor- 

 able habitat includes shadowy, secluded places with 

 moist soils that are conducive to probing (Oberholser 

 1974, Sanderson 1977). Daytime cover is dense thickets 

 composed of shrubs, briars, and vines (Glasgow 1958, 

 Britt 1971, Oberholser 1974). Feeding sites are often 

 associated with switchcane, blackberry, and honey- 

 suckle (Dyer 1976). Areas used at night are small, open 

 areas surrounded by an overhead cover of tall weeds, 

 grass, or crops, and may be located as far as 5 to 6 km 

 (3 to 4 mi) from daytime cover (Glasgow 1958). Wet 

 ditches in dry pastureland, old fields, or harvested 

 croplands are also used extensively at night. Controlled 

 burning of night nesting areas may be beneficial under 

 some conditions (Ensminger 1954). 



Earthworms compose 50% to 90% of the diet of 

 the American woodcock, which also includes beetles, 

 fly larvae, and occasionally, plant material (Britt 1971, 

 Sanderson 1977). When the soil is dry and probing is 

 difficult, the birds will eat grubs, slugs, and ants (Ober- 

 holser 1974). Dyer and Hamilton (1974) noted three 

 major feeding periods throughout the day: (a) early 

 morning; (b) midday; and (c) sunset. During extremely 

 cold weather, thousands of birds are forced into the 

 coastal marshes and occupy all available habitat (St. 

 Amant 1959). Many birds are found along the coast 

 and on cheniers at this time. 



Migration of the woodcock to the northern nesting 

 grounds begins in late January or early February (San- 

 derson 1977). Although nesting occurs mainly in the 



northern states, it has been documented on the Chenier 

 Plain of Texas (Oberholser 1974). 



In the Chenier Plain, woodcocks are limited by the 



availablility of suitable habitat. Any loss of forested 

 land will further reduce available habitat. Wintering 

 habitat is being lost to stream channelization, dam pro- 

 jects, land clearing for urban and industrial purposes, 

 clean farming, pine plantations, clearing of pastureland, 

 and clear -cutting of our forests (Sanderson 1977). 



5.3.25 COMMON SNIPE (Capella gallinago) 



The common snipe occurs on the Chenier Plain 

 from early October to late April (Lowery 1974a) and 

 often occupies the same wintering grounds year after 

 year (Naney 1973). Local movements in winter are 

 correlated with fluctuations in water level (Perry 1971). 

 Migration to northern areas begins about mid-March 

 (Sanderson 1977). Snipe feed in early morning and late 

 afternoon (Oberholser 1974). Little feeding occurs at 

 night (Owens 1967). 



Rice fields and coastal marshes provide suitable 

 habitat for common snipes (Booth 1964, Tuck 1965, 

 Perry 1971) in the Chenier Plain. Excellent wintering 

 grounds include coastal marsh and fallow or cultivated 

 rice fields (Owens 1967). Tuck (1965) found that the 

 interface between prairie and marsh is attractive to 

 snipe because large areas of pastures are highly pro- 

 ductive (Hoffpauir 1969). In south central Louisiana, 

 ditches and pond edges having weeds and sedges inter- 

 spersed with bare ground, disked land, and burned 

 areas offer excellent snipe habitat (Owens 1967). In 

 Texas, snipe use shallow rain pools, prairies and pas- 

 tures, mowed or plowed fields, fresh or salt marshes, 

 roadside ditches (Oberholser 1974) and canal edges(01- 

 sen 1975). Shallow, flooded fields with both inundated 

 land and exposed rises are preferred by snipe (Neely 

 1959). 



The diet of the common snipe includes 80% animal 

 material (e.g., insects, earthworms, crustaceans, arach- 

 nids, and mollusks) (Neely 1959, Oberholser 1974, 

 Sanderson 1977). Snipe eat sedge, smartweed, saw- 

 grass, bulrush, witchgrass, and wild millet. Most of 

 these plants occur naturally on wet fields (Neely 1959). 

 Owens (1967) suggested that plants may be incidental 

 in the diet. Due to periodic application of commercial 

 fertilizers, ricelands provide nutrients to snipe. Some 

 food is picked up from the ground surface, but snipe 

 usually concentrate in areas where they can probe 

 (Owens 1967). Neely (1959) found that snipe utilize 

 closely cropped fields for feeding. They will not use 

 areas with tall vegetation. Snipe feed in areas contain- 

 ing exposed and inundated land (Owens 1967) and in 

 wet, organic soils with dense cover (Tuck 1969) and 

 often roost in areas similar to those where they feed 

 (Perry 1971). 



Nesting occurs in the northern tier of states. The 

 common snipe lays four eggs that are incubated for 19 

 days in nests on the ground. 



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