Woodcock Wanderings

BRILYN BRECKA

Brilyn Brecka is a recent graduate of UW-Stevens Point, where she majored in wildlife ecology and management.

The floppy-eared springer spaniel in the back of the car wiggled excitedly and whined loudly during the ride through a parcel of thick, mixed hardwoods on a sunny day in early spring.

The eager dog’s owner, Bill Koepke, was taking him on a “spring training” run through the George W. Mead State Wildlife Area in central Wisconsin.

“He knows where he is now,” Koepke said of his black and white spaniel, Jango. “He knows there’s woodcock in there.”

After a left turn into a parking lot marked with dog training area signs, the whining got louder.

Outside the car, a rattling cacophony announced a group of sandhill cranes standing in the nearby field of low grass and swamp. While temperatures had finally reached 50 degrees, a crispness remained in the air and the ground was wet from snowmelt.

On command, Jango bolted from the vehicle, ready to explore. Built to work hard and play hard, he crashed through the woods, nose to the ground, sniffing for any birds, including woodcock, that may be hiding nearby.

“Like most birds, woodcock really like edges,” said Koepke, a strength and fitness coach who spends most of his free time outdoors.

Each year, American woodcock return to Wisconsin in early April to begin establishing territories known as singing grounds. They can travel 20-50 miles per night during their extensive migration.

Come fall, woodcock — also referred to as timberdoodle, night partridge or mudbat — is a popular upland game bird species among hunters and their dogs.

Training dogs to hunt these birds is no easy feat. The ability is bred into many dogs, but training a dog to respond to commands takes time.

When Jango was a puppy, Koepke walked with him in zigzag patterns to search for hidden training toys and practice whistle commands. Still, Jango is very independent and naturally driven.

“He’s got a pretty good nose and eye for where birds will be,” Koepke said. “He’s got a pretty good idea of what he’s doing. I’m just here to carry his water.”

Jango is a jack of all trades. He hunts waterfowl, small mammals and his specialty – upland game birds. Koepke views hunting dogs such as Jango as more than just a tool.

“I feel like I’m hunting with him, not using him as a tool, per se. We each have skill sets that aid the other,” he said, noting the longstanding traditions of hunting with this particular breed. “Springers are some of the oldest hunting dog breeds, back before we had firearms.”

As Jango worked, Koepke eventually moved into a thick stand of woods dominated by tag alder, aspen and hopefully woodcock. It was a walk he had done before, with each step revealing a story from hunts past.

“Right over there was probably the biggest buck I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said. “Jango flushed a woodcock, and I shot, and directly under my barrel, up stands this ginormous buck.

“As he stands up, his antlers are moving the aspen around him. We make eye contact, and he takes off, running right over Jango. And Jango the whole time is just looking for the bird and has no idea. I was standing 15 yards from this deer.”

During one of these stories, Jango began using a much tighter search pattern, hugging the ground and managing sharp, sudden turns — a sure sign he was tracking something. Then out of nowhere, a small explosion of wings elevated off the ground and quickly maneuvered away from the nose of the dog.

“Oh, there it goes! First one, good work!” Koepke encouraged Jango as the dog flushed the first woodcock of the day.

Bird dogs are a mix of ground and air sniffers. Because of the nature of birds, dogs will catch a scent from the wind and work that cone on the ground.

In this case, Jango worked to get downwind of the bird and track it close enough to flush it. If Koepke had been hunting, Jango would have flushed the woodcock perfectly for a shot opportunity.

After Jango made sure no more woodcock remained in the area, we continued to a new part of the swamp. For the next half-hour or so, no birds were discovered, but Jango continued to hunt with an impressive endurance.

Koepke compared the dog’s training schedule to athletics and fitness regimens for humans.

“The amount of nerdiness I take to programing for strength and conditioning for people, I also take to him,” he said. “When he and I are in the woods doing this stuff, all of it is focused and communication-based — checking in, eye contact, whistles.”

Looping around to another area in search of woodcocks, Koepke shared a little background on his love of hunting dogs. He grew up with beagles, hunting snowshoe hare and cottontail rabbits, and when he graduated college, he got an itch to get a hunting dog of his own.

“There’s something about going out in the woods with Jango. It adds layers to it,” Koepke said. “All these little things we would miss, he can see where animals have traveled, scat you wouldn’t see.”

Eventually, Jango managed to flush his second and last woodcock of the day.

“I just like every single bird flush,” Koepke said. “Every time he looks at me and he’s all excited or he wiggles, I love it all. I just like being outside. And when you can share the experience with another creature, you can’t not be happy.”

Wisconsin’s woodcock hunting season is Sept. 24-Nov. 7 this year, with a daily bag limit of three birds. A small game license is required. As with waterfowl and other migratory game birds, hunters who plan to pursue woodcock must be registered annually with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Harvest Information Program. Certification is free and available when purchasing a hunting license through the Go Wild online system or anywhere licenses are sold. For more on hunting woodcock and other species in Wisconsin, visit dnr.wi.gov/topic/hunt.