WOODCOCK CENSUS STUDIES IN NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES, 1953 
Howard L. Mendall 
Maine Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit 
During the spring of 1953, as in previous years, the writer served 
as coordinator of the woodcock census studies that were conducted in the 
New England States and New York.. 
This year it was decided by the compilers of census data to try 
out a.number of marked changes in the census technique. Instead of 
determining total counts of singing woodcock along each census route, 
a sample was to be obtained. Principal reasons for the changes were 
to standardize the method of obtaining data, to permit better statis- 
tical analysis, and to eliminate as many as possible of the errors that 
are bound to result by using a technique based primarily upon sound. 
In the new system of tabulating the data, the population index is 
the number of woodcock heard per stop per route. 
Unfortunately there will be no satisfactory basis for comparison 
until next year. However, in order not to lose an entire season of 
population data, censuses were conducted on a few routes by the old 
technique, as well as the new. On15 arees in Maine, Massachusetts, 
and New York, a total of 266 singing woodcock was recorded. On these 
same areas there were 262 birds in 1952. Thus based on this very small 
sample, little change in the status of breeding wodcock was evident. 
A slight increase in Maine was offset by a slight decrease in Massachusetts, 
with practically no change in New York. 
The complete census data for this year are presented in Table 8, 
It was very gratifying to note the willingness shown by the cooperators 
in using the new technique. In many instances considerable revision in | 
census routes was necessitated in order to meet the length requirements. 
An examination of the data sheets indicated a minimum of irregularities 
in spite of the fact that it is obvious the directions need slight clari- 
fication in several respects before another year. 
4A special study was conducted by the Maine Cooperative Wildlife 
Research Unit to determine the number of known birds not heard by using 
the new method. Censuses were run on ll of the central and eastern 
Maine areas by both the old and the new techniques. Assistance in this 
study was given to the Unit by personnel of the Moosehorn Refuge under 
Merton Radway, by State Biologists Peppard and Fitzpatrick, and by 
John M. eudiey of Calais. 
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