Timberdoodle, bog borer, brush snipe, needlenose or whatever you call him locally, the Woodcock is the most difficult to shoot with bow and arrow or any game animal. About 11-inches in length, they weigh about six ounces. A loner by nature the Woodcock looks like a pile of leaves as they sit tight and allow the bowhunter to walk past. Woodcock inhabit heavy cover such as wet woods, moist thickets and marshy brush.
The few hunters who actually spot them see only a flash of flight as they fly twisting through the heavy woods. It is amazing that they do not hit the tree limbs on their flight to safety. Arrows cast after them bounce off of limbs like steel balls in the old fashioned pin ball machines.
Early hunters using shotguns decimated the populations for the market value of their flesh. The development of land for agriculture also restricted their breeding grounds. Despite this they have returned to huntable populations throughout their range. Their ability to search out and destroy insects and worms is beneficial to man.
Bowhunters in search of this shy, secretive and largely nocturnal have but two chances of taking one. This writer has never been able to solve the problem of getting one. The first chance is from a blind location near a suspected breeding ground. It is basically a matter of a chance encounter and is not a high percentage opportunity. The second chance is to catch them on the ascendency as the little bird rises straight up when flushed. Although they do not always do so, some woodcock will rise straight up with their long pointed bill pointed downward. You might catch him at the peak of the rise before he disappears into the timber. Continue reading – https://dongasaway.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/bowhuntings-toughest-quarry/