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Deer were so concentrated during the floodsthat they ate everything in sight, including treebark. Photo by Dick Baxter.Soybean fields were at a particularlyvulnerable stage when the deer moved in.Photo by Dick Baxter.Firecracker rope was just one of thenoisemakers wildlife biologists used to keepdeer off farmers’ fields. AGFC photo.Devices called butane cannons, which are typically used to scarebirds off crops and fish farms, quickly became ineffective. The cannonsare set to go off at regular intervals but deer soon ignored therepetitive, low-pitched boom.Another option was firecracker ropes, long strands of slowburningfuse that have high-pitched firecrackers placed at randomspaces along the length. The ropes can be modified to fire a burst offirecrackers or fire singles at irregular intervals.“Firecracker ropes were much more effective,” Baxter said. “Theyreally do sound like someone firing a rifle, compared to the butanecannons.”The AGFC was able to issue firecracker rope to farmers duringfloods in 2009, but recent federal regulations require anyonehandling firecracker rope to be a member of a government agencyor to hold a license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearmsand Explosives.“Instead of just handing them out to farmers in need, wildlifebiologists and technicians spent hundreds of man hours stringingup firecrackers and making sure they stayed lit,” Baxter said.During the floods, the AGFC Wildlife Management Bureau alsodeveloped “scareboxes,” and tested them on some properties. Thesedevices were an MP3 player, speakers and a battery, housed in acooler to protect the electronics from the elements.“We had those things playing everything from sirens andgunshot sounds to elephants trumpeting,” Baxter said. “They weredownright obnoxious and they worked pretty well.”Commercial versions scareboxes cost about $1,500.“Our version cost less than $300 a piece, and can probably besomething farmers can do on their own in the future, Baxter said.”A handful of shoot-to-kill permits was issued after every othermeans of scare tactic was employed, but very few deer were killed,compared to the typical fall harvest from the same area.“Killing the deer was an absolute last resort,” Baxter said. “Mostfarmers were very reluctant to do it because they hunt those samedeer in the fall or lease their property to hunters. But their cropsare their livelihood, and they had to do something to protect theirinvestment.”HomebodiesHunters who have property in the flooded areas can still lookforward to a good year in their old stomping grounds. According toBaxter, the movement to the fields was temporary and deer shouldbe back in the river bottoms by the beginning of the deer season.“Most of our studies show that when floodwaters begin torecede, deer, especially does, will almost immediately move back totheir old habitat,” said Baxter. “Bucks will wander a bit more untillater in the season, but it’s not like they find the new food sourceand stay there forever.”Baxter does warn that hunters may see a small decrease in thenumber of fawns this year, because the floods hit during the beginningof the fawning season.“It actually looks more promising than we’d hoped,” said Baxter.“We’re still seeing some fawns in the area. Deer along the MississippiRiver have a later breeding season than surrounding areas. Biologistsbelieve it’s an adaptation those deer have made to withstandfloods just like this.” AWDeer weren’t the only animals seeking cover from the flood. The area also is host tothousands of feral pigs, which are extremely destructive to the habitat, farmer’s crops and theriver levee that was already stressed. As the water pushed the pigs into the open, the AGFC wasable to take advantage of the situation.“We heard about some large groups of hogs coming to the fields, and realized we had anopportunity to put a dent in the population,” said Captain Stephanie Weatherington, AGFCdisaster response coordinator. “Our officers were instructed to shoot any pig they could as theywere performing their other duties. We had to protect the levee from further damage.”SEPTEMBER • OCTOBER 2011 ARKANSAS WILDLIFE9

Lostin the MarshDuck Season Overshadows Other Migrating BirdsBy Randy ZellersA successful day inthe marsh isn’t alwaysmeasured in waterfowl.Photo by David Krementz/USGS ArkansasCooperative Fish andWildlife Research Unit.Hundreds of thousands of rails, woodcocks and snipe arrive in Arkansas each year, before the first wavesof mallards begin descending. They can be hunted after duck season closes but hardly any hunters seem tocare.About 1,100 Arkansas hunters admitted to hunting early migratory birds (called webless migrants by theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) during the 2009-10 waterfowl season, according to the Harvest InformationProgram survey for Arkansas. That’s about 2 percent of hunters who pursue ducks in similar habitat.“Those numbers are much more general than we can give for dove or duck hunters, simply because there’ssuch low participation,” said Luke Naylor, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission waterfowl programcoordinator. “The survey is based to give national numbers and doesn’t give such low numbers with extremeaccuracy.”Nontraditional ValuesNaylor says he thinks the lack of participation during the early season may have a lot to do with shifts intraditional hunting.“Hunters go out for the dove opener, then maybe go for an early teal hunt, then they head to the deerwoods,” Naylor said. “Duck leases aren’t flooded until later in the season when the ducks begin to arrive, sothere’s not as much habitat available to hunt early in the year.”Naylor’s even a bit confused about why more people don’t pursue snipe, which flock to Arkansas duringthe tail end of duck season.“The habitat is there, the snipe are there and the hunters are there, but few seem to take advantage of theopportunity.“I’ve been on hunts in shallowly flooded rice fields where I could tell that it just wasn’t going to happen.16ARKANSAS WILDLIFE SEPTEMBER • OCTOBER 2011

The snipe were buzzing our layout blinds,so we finally got up and started huntingfor them. The day changed from a horriblegoose hunt to a decent snipe hunt, and webrought home a few birds to cook.”Elite No MoreDr. David Krementz is a wildlifebiologist for the U.S. Geological SurveyArkansas Cooperative Fish and WildlifeResearch Unit, and avid hunter of earlymigrants. According to him, snipe,woodcock, rails and gallinules make up thebottom rung of the migratory bird harvest,but that wasn’t always the case.“Snipe hunting actually used to be anelite hunter’s sport,” Krementz said. “Therewas a large contingent of snipe hunters aslittle as 50 years ago.”The largest blow to snipe hunting camewhen the population crashed and theseason had to be closed for a decade. Whenit reopened, many hunters had forgottensnipe and had taken to other species, suchas mallards and pintails.“The sport never regained its statureafter the closure. It’s a shame, becauseit’s as addictive as any type of hunting Iknow.”Arrival TimeWaterfowl hunters can mix weblessmigratory bird hunts into their seasonsby following migration timing. Krementzsuggests hunters focus on soras andVirginia rails during September andOctober, switch to woodcock duringNovember and December, then finish theyear with snipe in late January and huntuntil mid-February, after duck seasonshave closed.“I often hunt for teal in the morningsof early teal season, then go after sorasand rails. During duck season, I’ll huntmallards in the morning the same way,then switch to snipe once the ducks havestopped flying.”in knee-high cover with patches of waterand open marsh nearby. Moist-soil unitsmanaged for ducks and other waterfowl areideal. Soras and Virginia rails typically runto the edge where dense weeds and brushborder open marsh.“They’ll hold there until they have noother option than to fly,” Krementz said.“When they finally do flush, you can havefive or six birds in the air at once, creatingan awesome shooting opportunity.“It’s a great hunt for kids. The weatherisn’t as bitter as during duck season, thebirds are easy to hit, and everyone can talkand have fun watching the dogs work.”Sniping for SportA snipe hunt can be a humbling experience.They’re easy to find in Arkansas,which has as many wintering snipe as anystate in the South. But they’re extremelyhard to hit.Krementz hunts snipe the same wayhe chases rails, but sticks to more openhabitats. Flooded rice fields often canbe the ticket, especially those with largepatches of open water used by duck andgoose hunters. Mud flats also tend tohold large concentrations of snipe duringwinter.“You really want close-working flushingdogs for snipe, because they’ll flush quicklyand give you a small target.”Upland OutingIf one early migratory bird goes againstthe grain, it’s the woodcock. Appearinglike a misshapen snipe, the woodcock ismuch more at home in dense undergrowthof upland forests than marshes.“Think of a dense, 2- to 3-year-oldclearcut where white-tailed deer beddown and you have the perfect woodcockhabitat,” Krementz said. “I even talk torabbit hunters and deer hunters whenscouting an area to see if they’ve seenwoodcock where they’re hunting.”Hunters generally associate thesebirds with the soft soils of southeasternArkansas’s Mississippi Delta, and quite afew live in that region, but more are foundin the southwestern corner of the state,thanks to increased timber practices.“Arkansas has a lot of woodcockRail RallyKrementz likens a rail hunt to a pheasantdrive set in the swamp. He typically wantsthree to five hunters walking in hip bootsand a flushing dog or two to push the birdsto the edge of the habitat. The birds restMost snipe are taken as targets of opportunity by duck hunters late in the season. Photo by DavidKrementz/USGS Arkansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.SEPTEMBER • OCTOBER 2011ARKANSAS WILDLIFE17

Hundreds of thousands of rails, woodcocks and snipe arrivein Arkansas each year, before the first waves of mallards begindescending. They can be hunted after duck season closes buthardly any hunters seem to care.About 1,100 Arkansas hunters admitted to hunting early migratorybirds (called webless migrants by the U.S. Fish and WildlifeService) during the 2009-10 waterfowl season, according to theHarvest Information Program survey for Arkansas. That’s about 2percent of hunters who pursue ducks in similar habitat.“Those numbers are much more general than we can give fordove or duck hunters, simply because there’s such low participation,”said Luke Naylor, Arkansas Game and Fish Commissionwaterfowl program coordinator. “The survey is based to givenational numbers and doesn’t give such low numbers withextreme accuracy.”Sora hunting during early season is an excellent opportunity to workretrievers. Photo by Craig Endicott.Nontraditional ValuesNaylor says he thinks the lack of participation during the earlyseason may have a lot to do with shifts in traditional hunting.“Hunters go out for the dove opener, then maybe go for an earlyteal hunt, then they head to the deer woods,” Naylor said. “Duckleases aren’t flooded until later in the season when the ducks beginto arrive, so there’s not as AW much habitat available to hunt early inthe year.”18Although the breed has been relegatedto lapdog duty by many owners, cockerspaniels owe their bloodline to thewoodcock.According to the American KennelClub, cocker spaniels originally werehunting dogs, flushing grouse andwoodcock from dense cover. The name“cocker” is directly attributed to theirusefulness in hunting woodcock.Few breeders raise cocker spaniels fortheir original sporting purpose, preferringthe larger Boykin and springer spaniels.No registered cocker spaniel breeders inArkansas promote their dogs for hunting,but hunters interested in a cocker can findone with a little luck and a long drive.Curtis Rogers of Warrior Spring Ranchin Coleman, Texas, raises hunting cockerspaniels, and proclaims there is no betterdog for flushing birds in dense cover.“If you’re looking for a spaniel, be sureto look at dogs from the English bloodline,” Rogers said. “Most American cockerswill have long hair and stubby legs, and aremore show dogs than hunters.”Rogers says cockers are even adept atretrieving downed birds, including dove,ducks and upland game birds.“They’ll even do water retrieves onducks as big as a mallard,” he said witha smile. “They may have to drag it onthe ground when they get it ashore, butthey’ll do everything in their power toplease you.”Rogers primarily hunts chukar andpheasant with his dogs, but has used themon their namesake woodcock.“I took one of my dogs on a guidedhunt for grouse and woodcock twoyears ago. We flushed six grouse and sixwoodcock during the day-and-a-halfhunt. The guide was using a springerspaniel and an Irish setter, but was soimpressed by my dog, he bought a puppyfrom me by the end of the hunt.”ARKANSAS WILDLIFE SEPTEMBER • OCTOBER 2011Cocker spaniels love to please their owner,which makes them excellent huntingcompanions. Photo courtesy of Curtis Rogers.

Wing Shooting’sLeastWantedIn the 1940s, woodcock and snipe held the attention of manyhunters willing to brave the marsh with oilskin waders and side-bysideshotguns. European varieties of these birds still are revered bywing shooting clubs in France and Ireland.With the increase in ducks and duck hunters, marsh birds havebeen ignored to the point that few outdoors enthusiasts canidentify them. Here’s a lineup of these forgotten species to helpwould-be hunters find their targets.RailsA few species of rail live in or migratethrough Arkansas, but hunters havetwo they can legally take – Virginia railand sora. Both species are slightly largerthan a dove, about 8-10 inches frombeak to tail, and about 4 ounces. Theyhave compact bodies with long, strongVirginia Rail. Photo by legs they use to step through the marsh,Michael J. Budd/USGSArkansas Cooperative Fish looking for aquatic plant seeds, smalland Wildlife Research Unit. insects and crustaceans.The easiest way to distinguish the twospecies is by their beaks. The sora has acompact, bright yellow beak and a blackpatch of feathers at the front of the head;the Virginia rail sports a long, curved,orange beak to probe a bit deeper intothe marsh.Rails typically run to thickmarsh grasses when threatened, andoccasionally swim to avoid predators,Sora. Photo by Joy Viola, but both species take flight when theyNortheastern University, run out of cover, offering a shootingBugwood.org.experience similar to a pheasant drive.Hunters searching for rails should be familiar with the king rail, aspecies in decline and off-limits to hunters. Adult king rails are almosttwice as large as soras and Virginia rails, rivaling the dimensions ofa teal. They are camouflaged in the same brown plumage as Virginiarails with a curved, orange beak.Woodcock. Photo by RickyLayson Photography,Bugwood.org.WoodcockThe woodcock’s appearance can besummed up in one word – peculiar. Thebulbous head is seemingly attached toa small, quail-like body without a neck.The eyes look a bit out of place, restingcloser to the top of the head than mostbirds’ eyes. They use their abnormallylong, slender beak to probe soft soils forearthworms, their favorite food.Woodcock are much more in tune with upland habitats than otherearly migrants. Hunters pursuing these odd-looking birds should payclose attention to thick, overgrown areas typical of rabbit and whitetaileddeer bedding cover. Areas that have been clearcut and allowed togrow dense with briars and chest-high vegetation are top spots to startthe search.SnipeWilson’s snipe are plentiful inArkansas during their migration inthe latter half of duck season. Theircryptic, brown colors make themnearly impossible to spot until theyflush. They sport a long beak, similarto the woodcock, but don’t share thewoodcock’s odd eye placement.Snipe tend to stick to marshes and open wetlands with small clumpsof cover scattered throughout. Harvested rice fields and moist-soilunits are particularly attractive to snipe, especially when patches of dryland create irregular edges between vegetation and water.No bird can compare to the snipe when it comes to avoiding theshot. Even veteran dove hunters will find the combination of a marshyfooting and the snipe’s erratic flight to be too much to handle at times.According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, “sniper” originallywas used by British soldiers stationed in India to praise shooting abilitybecause only the finest shots could hit snipe as they zigzagged away.Gallinules and MoorhensThe most adept swimmers of thewebless migratory birds, gallinules andmoorhens resemble small chickenswith extremely long, bright yellow legs.Both species have triangular red beakswith yellow tips. Purple gallinules havestriking purple and green iridescentplumage; moorhens are covered in slick,black feathers with small white stripesunderneath the wings. Gallinules andmoorhens usually fly to South Americain September, and are found along theLouisiana border in Arkansas for a shorttime during the hunting season.Moorhens and gallinules are morecomfortable with open water than therest of the early migratory species, andare commonly found at the shoreline,feeding on the seeds of aquatic grasses,snails and small crustaceans. Althoughthey are awkward fliers, these rarelypursued marsh birds can distribute theirweight over their long toes and walkeffortlessly across lily pads and otherfloating vegetation.SEPTEMBER • OCTOBER 2011Snipe. Photo by AlfredViola, NortheasternUniversity, Bugwood.org.Moorhen. Photos byJoy and Alfred Viola,Northeastern University,Bugwood.org.Gallinulle. Photos byJoy and Alfred Viola,Northeastern University,Bugwood.org.ARKANSAS WILDLIFE19