Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
November happenings
Woodcocks, quail on the agenda for hunters
Arkansans are so immersed in deer and duck hunting that we overlook other game, such as bobwhite quail and woodcock.
Few hunters pursue upland birds in Arkansas, largely for perceived lack of opportunity. Quail are uncommon in areas where development and neglect has consumed their best habitat. Even fewer hunt for woodcocks, mainly because nobody knows what they are, knows where to find them or how to hunt them when they do find them.
Few hunters have bird dogs anymore, so we have lost our ability to hunt quail and other upland birds, but birds are for the taking if you know where to seek them. Quail season opened Monday, and woodcock season opens Saturday, adding to the suite of hunting opportunities available to Arkansans. All you need is a hunting license and a place to hunt. The license is inexpensive, and good hunting places are more plentiful than you might be led to believe.
The traditional method for hunting upland birds is over a pointing dog. Watching a good dog work is thrilling, but it’s hard to justify the expense and effort of training, feeding and maintaining a dog that doesn’t get much work.
I have never had a good bird dog. I learned to hunt quail without a dog, and I learned to hunt woodcocks by accident, also without a dog. It’s second nature to me, and it’s not very hard.
Quail and woodcock are abundant enough at my hunting club in northern Grant County to be worth pursuing. I wouldn’t have believed it when I joined the club in 2009, but bobwhite assembly calls fill the air on pleasant mornings during deer season and spring turkey season.
Our lease contains small parcels of mature pines and many acres of young cutovers. Both are excellent quail habitat. This is especially true for the cutovers after they are covered with weeds. The ground is still open, but there’s plenty of food in the form of seeds and bugs. Brushpiles, bushes and small spoil piles provide excellent cover for quail.
Bobwhites relate strongly to edge habitat, especially weedy fringe areas abutting firebreaks or thickets. The best places are weed patches or brushy tangles on a corner. To hunt these areas without a dog, walk slowly along the edges of firebreaks. Stop frequently and linger a couple of minutes.
A quail will often make a short, sharp alarm whistle before a covey flushes. This will give you a split second of warning to the mayhem that is about to occur.
However, quail are just as likely to wait motionless for trouble to pass. If they can’t see or hear you, they get nervous. All it takes is for one bird to flush, and the rest will follow.
Without a dog, a covey of quail flushing practically underfoot is startling. Resist the temptation to throw up your gun and shoot wildly at the first birds to flush. A covey seldom rises all at once. They blast off in little groups. You won’t have a prayer of hitting the first birds on a rise, but you will have an excellent chance of bagging one or two late risers.
If you don’t encounter bobwhites on the edges, you might find them in the interior of a cutover. The best places are in brushy areas, especially small scrub cedar trees, in weedy draws.
You can often find quail in the same cover in stands of mature pines.
In the evenings, quail fan out along slopes to forage for seeds and bugs. These birds will be separated in singles and pairs. Birds in that situation are more apt to run than to fly, so getting a shot without a dog requires a fair amount of luck.
The hardest part about hunting quail without a dog is finding dead or wounded birds. Their plumage blends perfectly with the ground, so it is extremely important to mark where your dead bird or birds fell. Do not swing on a second bird unless you have marked your first kill. Quail are too precious to waste.
The woodcock is a migratory bird that nests in the north. On summer nights in Vermont, Michigan, and Minnesota, their trills are as ubiquitous as the cooing of mourning doves in the South. They arrive in Arkansas in October, and they spend their days in the thickest, most forbidding cover imaginable.
Woodcocks fly at dusk. They are identifiable by their erratic, corkscrew flight pattern. During the day you can find them feeding in muddy areas and upland areas with soft soil, especially around big puddles and spring pools.
Like quail, woodcocks will allow you to get close before they flush. They are a lot slower than quail on the flush and easy to hit on a rise. Once they get horizontal, they are harder to hit than a major league knuckleball.
Quail and woodcocks are delicious to eat. A wild bobwhite has mild-flavored breasts. A woodcock has very dark breasts that are surprisingly rich and strong at first taste. Baked with asparagus tips and glazed carrots, they make a feast fit for royalty.
Woodcock season runs Saturday through Dec. 20. The daily limit is three.
Quail season runs Nov. 1 through Feb. 6. The daily limit is six.
If you don’t spend at least one day pursuing these birds, you’re cheating yourself out of a lot of fun and, potentially, a fabulous meal.