What would concern me most from Scott and Jeff's input is that the major wintering area of the woodcock is the Gulf coast. Having lived in Louisiana in the late '70s, early '80s I can verify that the countryside is still being "reclaimed" for agriculture and development. Even in the short time I was there I saw potholes drained, streams channeled, and field hedgerows disappear as the demand for wall to wall cotton and soybean fields increased. I can "re-engineer" my woodland edge to be early successional vegetation (I'm currently doing just that) but that won't help if there are fewer birds returning. It reminds me of the noticeable drop in neotropical migrants in that same period, 1970s, due to loss of wintering habitat in southern Mexico and Central America. At least others have noticed the decline and there are efforts to quantify that with data. Whether that will stop the continued drainage of swamp areas or the restoration of appropriate breeding area .....well, we'll see.
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