JONESBORO — I remember very well the first time I saw a flock of white-fronted geese in Arkansas. It was back in the 1970s. I was a student at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, and just south of town, my friend Nelson Childers and I were counting mallards, snow geese and other waterfowl as part of an ornithology-class assignment.
“What the heck are those?” Nelson asked as we scanned the flocks with binoculars. “They’re geese, but I’ve never seen this kind before.”
There were 12 of them — medium-sized, brown geese with black bars on their bellies. Each had a distinctive white patch on its face behind a pinkish bill.
“They’re greater white-fronted geese,” I said, showing him a picture of the birds I found in my field guide. “I’ve never seen them either.”
The whitefronts, or “specklebellies” as we learned they are called, visited that field throughout the winter. After we told our ornithology professor about them, word got out, and birdwatchers came from far and wide to see them. Only 2,000 to 3,000 white-fronted geese wintered in Arkansas back then, so like us, many people had never seen them.
In the decades since, white-fronted geese have become increasingly common in the Natural State, thanks to abundant food in agricultural areas. Each year, tens of thousands fly down from breeding grounds in arctic Alaska and Canada to winter in Arkansas. And as their numbers have skyrocketed, “specklebellies” have become favorites of many Natural State waterfowlers. The 2010-11 hunting season runs through Jan. 30, with a daily bag limit of two birds and a possession limit of four.
Thirty years after seeing that first small flock of whitefronts near Jonesboro, I had my first opportunity to hunt these geese with Mike Checkett, a waterfowl biologist and communications specialist with Ducks Unlimited in Memphis, Tenn. Mike is a decoy carver, layout-boat builder and avid hunter who has traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada in pursuit of ducks and geese. Through his work with DU television, he’s become one of the world’s best-known waterfowl experts.
On a cold, gray January day, I joined Mike and his retriever Elvis to hunt on a private-land lease near Stuttgart. As the sun was rising, Mike and I added several whitefront replicas to the big decoy spread around the pit blind from which we would hunt. In the distance, we could see the Riceland Rice plant at the edge of the “Duck Hunting Capital of the World,” a locale increasingly known for its excellent goose hunting as well.
We crawled into the blind, closed the sliding top and peeked through a drapery of thatch to watch for geese. Elvis sat patiently beside Mike at one end of the blind, scanning the sky for birds. For half an hour, all was quiet, but then, in the distance, we could hear the melodic notes of calling whitefronts. A flock was coming our way.
Whitefronts weigh 4 to 6 pounds apiece; they’re slender and agile on the wing. While Canada geese glide to a landing like huge bombers, whitefronts careen out of the sky, sideslipping or butterflying down in a near vertical descent. Their voice is distinctive: high-pitched and harmonious, like laughter.
As Mike and I huddled in the blind, the calls of the specklebellies grew in volume. Soon we could see the dozen or so birds, and as Mike played a perfect rendition of their call notes, they held a steady course that would bring them right over our heads.
When the geese finally could see Mike’s decoys, they cupped their wings and began swinging back and forth in the air. Too late they realized the ruse, and seconds later, on Mike’s command, Elvis bolted from the blind and retrieved our kills. I finally had my first specklebelly, and before our hunt was over, Mike and I would kill several more as well. It was one of the most fun and satisfying hunts I’ve enjoyed in recent years.
While white-fronted geese have become more and more abundant, public-land hunting opportunities have not. There are rarely enough grain fields to attract geese on a regular basis to Arkansas’ wildlife management areas, and the national wildlife refuges with decent goose populations — Wapanocca, Bald Knob, Cache, White River and Big Lake — are closed to goose hunting during most or all of the season. Therefore, goose hunters must turn to private lands for their bounty because that’s where most white-fronted geese are concentrated.
Hiring a guide is one option for private-lands hunting. These professionals know the best ways to hunt these birds. They lease large tracts of land where geese are likely to be feeding during winter, so there’s no problem with access. Best of all, guides do all the work. The hunter need not spend endless hours scouting, doing the legwork to gain hunting permission and setting out/retrieving decoys. For a reasonable fee, reputable guides do all this.
Most Arkansas goose guides are concentrated around Stuttgart, and you can learn how to contact them by calling the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce at 870-673-1602, or by visiting their website, www.stuttgartarkansas.org. It’s more difficult finding guides in the northeast Delta, but a web search using the term “Arkansas goose hunting” will turn up many, and the Jonesboro (870-932-6691, www.jonesborochamber.org), Cross County (870-238-2601, www.crosscountychamber.com) and Brinkley (870-734-2262, www.brinkleyar.com) chambers of commerce often can provide leads on guide services available near those cities.
If you hunt from your own blind in a field, you may be able to attract whitefronts using decoys and calling. Specklebellies often associate with flocks of snow geese, so most hunters use the same decoys and decoy spreads used for snows, adding a few whitefront imitations at the edge of the spread. Big spreads work best, but even a few dozen whitefront decoys will occasionally lure in these wary birds.
Specklebellies have a call that’s quite different from Canadas or snows. Hearing this call helps attract them to decoy spreads, so it’s wise to obtain and study an audio or videotape that teaches the proper sounds to use. This year’s whitefront season ends the last Sunday of January.