March 2023 • Nebraskaland 47
that during the summer, woodcock in Nebraska progressively
used irrigated agricultural fi elds. While woodcock routinely
use open areas, including fi elds, as nocturnal roosting sites,
our research showed woodcock using irrigated soybean and
corn fi elds during the day when they were likely feeding. This
behavior in Nebraska is quite diff erent from what has been
observed in previous studies in eastern North America.
So why would woodcock seek out fi elds with center pivot
irrigation in the summer? The two summers we tracked
woodcock in Nebraska were very dry, and soils likely
became hard. In addition, with waning moisture levels,
earthworms likely retreated deep into the soil. In irrigated
fi elds with moist soil, earthworms likely remained near the
top, making them accessible to the woodcock and its long
probing bill.
Thus, it now appears quite possible that irrigated
agricultural fi elds serve as convenient, albeit unconventional,
feeding sites for woodcock choosing to spend the summer in
Nebraska. What remains unclear is whether woodcock would
be able to survive in Nebraska during a drought year without
irrigation. Why some woodcock travel to points north while
others chose to remain in Nebraska throughout their long
summer remains a mystery.
Sandhills Outpost and Grassland
Troubles
The Nebraska Sandhills is a landscape associated with
greater prairie-chickens and western meadowlarks, not
American woodcocks. And yet, at an isolated outpost near
Calamus Reservoir we were not only able to locate a displaying
woodcock, we were fortunate enough to capture this bird and
outfi t it with a satellite transmitter. Furthermore, this bird
remained at this site throughout the summer, and even spent
a few evenings roosting in the pristine Sandhills grasslands
west of the reservoir. This is certainly a fi rst in the history of
woodcock tracking and represents a remarkably western and
Jorgensen and Brenner measure the wing of a woodcock at George Syas WMA before
attaching a GPS transmitter.
