UP Michigan

[Kevin McCormack]

Am firmly convinced in my old age now that sonic (beeper) collars do in fact alert and sensitize gamebirds (including wild quail) in the field & forest to the presence of humans with dogs. Like the admonitions of guides on the northern Great Plains on mid- to late season pheasant and sharptail hunts to not let the doors on the trucks slam shut as you set out into a new cover, I think the same effect on woodcock and especially ruffed grouse is now well established. I began to notice the effect on woodcock in particular about 8-10 years ago; the birds would run in short spurts in front of my English setter, confusing the notion that they would hold until you nearly stepped on them. While not nearly as skittish as ruffed grouse, they indeed now behave differently. It it is now a common occurrence in many of the areas I still hunt. Likewise, we now occasionally hear a grouse flush just within earshot when one of our party activates a beeper collar at the beginning of a hunt into fresh cover in an otherwise nearly silent forest.