BOBWHITE QUAIL Northern bobwhite quail are diminishing in numbers, due to agricultural practices and development. Preserve hunting has become a popular alternative for bird hunters and their dogs...Read More View All Quail Tips

 

They're some of the strangest-looking, most secretive, most intriguing game birds in North America. Most hunters call them woodcock; Keith Sutton of Arkansas calls them timberdoodles. He says when they migrate through his state they offer some of the testiest wing shooting in the entire outdoors.

Woodcock nest in northern-tier states and especially eastern Canada's provinces, then they migrate to Louisiana to spend the winter. These woodland birds are characterized by long pointed bills and an erratic ziz-zag flight pattern. They're a great favorite of bird hunters, including Sutton. He gets after woodcock each fall when they're migrating through Arkansas.

Knowing when they're coming through is one thing. Knowing specifically where to find woodcock is something else, according to Sutton.

"Typically you've got to be a weather watcher because they're here today, gone tomorrow" he advises. "The key is knowing what days they're going to be here. Usually, the first big, hard cold front north of us where there's going to be snow makes the birds go further south or they would starve. When those first cold fronts hit north of us, you can expect those birds are going to come where we live in the South."

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