CENSUS OF WOODCOCK BREEDING POPULATION 
IN VICINITY OF PATUXENT REFUGE, MD. IN 1952 
Robert F. Stewart 
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
Evening counts of singing male woodcock were made from March 6 to 
April hs 1951. 
The study area was approximately a 16.5 square mile rectangle, 
between Bowie and Laurel, Maryland, and including Patuxent Research 
Refuge. 
The population of territorial males was 43 (2.2 per sq. mile), 
the density varying greatly from one portion of the area to another, 
depending on habitat conditions. - Typical habitat was damp bushy areas 
that have resulted from cutting and burning of upland forest, where 
moisture results from seepage. The cover is composed chiefly of 
deciduous tree species such as sweetgum and red maple. Woodcock 
occurred regularly also in brushy secondary stages of succession on 
damp upland areas that have been retired from agriculture and grown 
up to Virginia pine or sweetgum brush. This habitat is not so dense 
as the preceding type. The population in one 2-square mile area of 
damp brush (cut-over and burned forest land) was 19 territorial males 
(1.5 males per 100 acres). These were probably optimum woodcock breed- 
ing conditions for the inner coastal plain of Maryland, and makes an 
interesting comparison with the 1.5 and 2.2 singing grounds per 100 
acres reported for southern Wisconsin and northeastern Minnesota 
respectively (see report for central-northern states). 
Much of the woodcock habitat on the Patuxent Refuge has been 
destroyed in recent years. This is largely the resuit of clearing 
in connection with farm wildlife experiments, but partly also from 
natural succession. 
The refuge population of territorial males was determined during 
h years as follows: 192 - 25; 1943 - 21; 1947 - 8; 1951-9. The 
noticeable drop between 19,3 and 1947 was probably almost entirely due 
to the habitat changes mentioned above. 
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