Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge biologist Andrew Weik participated in the 10^th American Woodcock Symposium during October 4-6, 2006.  This year’s symposium was hosted by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in Roscommon, MI. 

Every few years, the scientific woodcock community hosts this symposium to highlight recent research on American woodcock.  Woodcock symposia, or “workshops” as the first few were called, have effectively fostered communication of woodcock research and have proved to be the foundation for successful woodcock management internationally. Past symposia have been held across the range of the species, in Minnesota (1966), Louisiana (1968 and 1997), Maine (1969), Michigan (1971), Georgia (1974), New Brunswick (1977), Pennsylvania (1980), and Indiana (1990).

At this year’s symposium, forty papers were presented, covering a wide variety of topics including conservation strategies, habitat ecology, and population dynamics.  Several papers on Eurasian woodcock were presented; participants came from numerous states spanning Texas to Maine, as well as from the United Kingdom, France, and Belarus. This year the symposium highlighted research into the role of mortality from hunting in population dynamics.

Moosehorn was well represented at the symposium, having made major contributions to 6 of the presentations.  Weik, in addition to moderating a session on population dynamics, gave two presentations:

• Management and Research of the American Woodcock at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge – Past, Present, and Future (Andrew Weik)
• Habitat Management for Woodcock on the Northern Breeding Range (Andrew Weik and Daniel McAuley)

Dan McAuley gave four presentations that were based on research conducted at Moosehorn NWR:

• Detecting Passage of Migrant Radio-Tagged Woodcock Using Semi-Automated Receiver Recording Equipment from Fire Towers (Dan McAuley)
• Incubation Behavior of the American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) in Maine (Dan McAuley)
• Survival of American Woodcock Broods and Chicks in Maine (Dan McAuley)
• National Woodcock Mortality Studies (Dan McAuley, John Bruggink, David Andersen, David Krementz)