The Cape May Peninsula in New Jersey has long been known as an important migratory stopover site for a myriad of birds in the Atlantic Flyway, including American woodcock. A recent bout of extreme weather on the East Coast led to the death of more than 170 woodcock at Cape May Point. The tragic event serves as a stark reminder of the fragile balance these birds maintain.
A Perfect Storm
Cape May Average Temperature for the Month of January 2026
Citation: Cape May January 2026 Historical Weather Data (New Jersey, United States)
The trouble began with a snowstorm on Jan. 25, followed by an extended period of subfreezing temperatures that persisted for more than a week. These conditions caused the soil to freeze, preventing woodcock from foraging for earthworms, the primary food source of the bird.
Field observations documented birds concentrating in small patches of unfrozen ground, including grassy areas and road edges where soil temperatures remained marginally higher. Although woodcock are resilient to cold, they have limited energetic reserves. As frozen conditions persisted, mortality increased once those reserves were depleted and food was inaccessible.
Natural Color Image vs False Color Image
Migratory Adaptations
While the event was undeniably impactful to the local woodcock at Cape May, the broader population-level implications are less certain. Available telemetry data provide important context, yet they do not account for the broader impacts, particularly given that the extreme weather was widespread and affected areas well beyond Cape May.
Dr. Erik Blomberg, professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Maine, leads the Eastern Woodcock Migration Research Cooperative, a collaborative effort focused on understanding the migratory ecology of American woodcock. Since its formation in 2017, the cooperative has deployed GPS telemetry on more than 700 individual woodcock, providing critical insights into migration patterns and habitat selection.
The telemetry data provide insights into the demographic patterns of birds using Cape May as a migratory stopover. Dr. Blomberg notes that “most of the woodcock that filter through Cape May are young woodcock in their first migration from northern areas in the Atlantic Flyway. If most of these woodcock were young birds, it’s possible they lacked the experience to interpret the incoming weather system and move proactively.”
More broadly, research indicates that wintering woodcock rarely make long-distance movements in response to severe weather. An analysis of 142 instances in which GPS-marked woodcock encountered extreme winter conditions found that birds moved more than five miles in only eight cases (Trebilcock 2022). The data suggest that woodcock follow a consistent behavioral strategy, choosing to remain in familiar habitat and wait out adverse conditions instead of relocating. In most winters, this approach is advantageous, reducing risks associated with unfamiliar terrain and energy expenditure, though it can increase vulnerability during prolonged or unusually severe cold.
Dr. Blomberg suggests that “most of the time this adaptation serves them well because it might be safer to stay in familiar habitat, but clearly sometimes, like this instance in Cape May, it has tragic results.”
Importance of Habitat
Extreme weather caused severe, localized woodcock mortality at Cape May. Given the magnitude and intensity of these recent storms, population-level impacts may also have occurred more broadly throughout the flyway. Both the long-term trends in woodcock abundance and the ability of the species to rebound following acute losses like those documented this winter are determined by the abundance and distribution of suitable habitat.
Long-term monitoring by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service documents significant declines in singing males across both the Eastern (–0.70% per year) and Central (–0.46% per year) management regions from 1968 to 2024 (Seamans 2025). These sustained declines are largely attributed to the loss of young forest habitat driven by forest maturation and expanding urban development.
While extreme weather events are generally more isolated, habitat loss represents a persistent and ongoing challenge for the overall population. The species relies on young, structurally diverse forests and shrubby openings throughout its annual cycle, and the continued loss of these conditions limits population growth and recovery across much of the species’ range.
The Cape May event serves as a reminder of the fragile balance these birds maintain while reinforcing that long-term population trends are driven primarily by the availability of habitat rather than isolated events.
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Citation
Seamans, M.E., and R.D. Rau. 2025. American woodcock population status, 2025. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Laurel, Maryland.
Trebilcock, Katherine. “Riders on the Storm: Using Satellite Transmitters to Quantify American Woodcock Movement Behavior Following Extreme Weather Events.” 2022. Honors College. 732. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/732
