An American woodcock waits out the snowcover in April at Moosehorn NWR in Maine (photo by Matt Vander Haegan).

Several snow storms this April seem to have taken their toll on American woodcock at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge.  Refuge staff recently completed the annual woodcock survey, and the number of breeding woodcock on the core study area as measured by the refuge's singing ground survey dropped markedly from last year's "modern" high mark of 135 displaying males to 90 "peenting" birds this year.  The first woodcock were observed displaying at the refuge on March 25^th, when the snow cover largely had disappeared from open areas and south slopes.  One week later, eastern Maine was blanketed by 5 inches of new snow, which lasted for a few days until a storm on April 5^th deposited another foot.  Just as the birds were thawing out,  a few more inches of wet snow fell during the third week of April.  Survey routes that were completed during the first half of the survey window (April) generally had lower numbers of displaying birds, whereas survey routes that were run later seemed less affected.