INVESTIGATIONS ON WOODCOCK IN MICHIGAN 
Lytle H. Blankenship 
Michigan State College and 
Michigan Department of Conservation 
Most of the information gathered on woodcock in 1953 pertains to 
singing ground counts and habitat analyses. The former were made by 
cooperators throughout the state. The latter were undertaken as a 
phase of a recently initiated research project on the bird. The study 
is being conducted by the writer, a graduate student of Michigan State 
College, under the sponsorship of the Michigan Department of Conserva- 
tion's Game Division. Since the project is in its first few months 
very little information can be provided at this time. However, the 
following comments will serve as a partial summary of some of the wrk 
being done and may present some useful information for others. 
The number of census routes has increased during the three years | 
of running counts. Twenty-seven routes were run this year as compared 
to 1) in 1952 and 12.in 1951. 
Two comparisons may be made from the singing ground data collect- 
ed during the past two years. One.such comparison includes all sing- 
ing routes of each.year; the other includes only data from routes run ' 
both years (Table 13). According to the first comparison the average 
number of birds heard per route increased from 6.); in 1952 to 7.6 in 
1953, indicating an increase of 1.2 birds per route throughout the 
state. The second comparison indicates a still greater increase of 
1.5 birds per route, Several observers noted an evidently greater 
activity on certain routes this year, whereas others reported fewer 
birds. As a whole such data and general observations tend to indicate 
a slightly greater population of breeding woodcock in 1953 over the 
previous year. ? 
The writer visited two special study areas as often as possible to 
run census routes and to observe singing ground activity. Figure 2 
shows the results of the two routes. The data from the route in the 
Gratiot-Saginaw State Game Area (Gratiot County) indicate tw popula- 
tion peaks while the figures from the route at the Rose Lake Wildlife 
Experiment Station (Clinton-Shiawassee Counties ) show a nearly level 
plateau. ,However, the counts weré probably started too late in both 
areas, particularly the Rose Lake area, to catch the early migration 
peak. No definite reason can be given at this time for the second peak * 
on the Gratiot-Saginaw route, 
¥ Similar to the situation reported by Sheldon (Spec. Sci. Rept. 
Wildlife No. 1h, 1952: 30-hh.--Ed. 

