MASSACHUSETTS WOODCOCK STUDIES - 1954 
William G. Sheldon 
Massachusetts Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit 
Cooperators in this project were Ethan Howard, Jr., Gardner Hobart 
and Herbert Maxfield. 
The trapping and banding routine of former years in Massachusetts 
was continued on a somewhat reduced scale, thus completing five years 
of this phase of the studies. The results mve corroborated findings 
of other years on the behavior pattern of male birds as reported in 
previous accounts. 
More emphasis has been placed on summer studies, and nets were run 
from early July until late October in one location in Quabbin Reservation. 
Results of an intensive two-year study of singing field character- 
istics in central Massachusetts is being prepared and will be summarized 
in next year's annual report. 
Spring return of Woodcocks 
Correlated with an extremely early spring, the vanguard of wood- 
cock migrants arrived much earlier than usual, A "peenting" male was 
heard at dawn in late February. In spite of the early arrival of some 
woodcocks, the bulk of native birds did not arrive on the breeding 
grounds in Quabbin Reservation until the last few days in March. For 
five years, there has been a rapid buildup of performing males the 
last week in March regardless of how early or late the spring may have 
been. 
Spring Trapping Results 
One hundred and seventeen captures were made in the spring, of 
which 82 were new birds, 20 were returns and 15 were repeats. Three 
of the total were chicks, 8 were females and the bdance males. 
Returns of males.=--A manuscript has been prepared analyzing the 
returns of singing males over a five-year period, It is now known that 
a minimum of 51 percent of the males captured in the spring of 1950 
returned to breed in the spring of 1951. Results of this entire study 
will be published within the year. 
During the spring of 195), there was a total of 18 returns of males. 
Four of these were originally captured and banded in 1950, 2 in 1951, 
none in 1952, (but several of the returns of 1950 and 1951 were also 
caught in 1952) and 11 in 1953. Another of these, caught July 1953, 
in a mist net, was captured in the spring of 195, using a singing 
field .6 miles away. A second return was that of a road-killed bird. 
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