The Honk
By: Scott Threinen 3 Time World Live Goose Calling Champion
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First things first, the only masters in the sport of waterfowling are the birds themselves. They are the ones with all the answers. They know what they want to hear, what they want to see, and know where they want to go each day. We, we are just students. Sometimes we get good grades on the test, but rarely do our homework so we turn out to be average. We can set out a good U-Shape decoy spread, blow a call with some decency, and have put a lot of money into decoys that we assume make up for our concealment. I like to call it hunting inside the box. Inside the box are hunters who learned from hunters, who learned from other hunters, on setting decoy spreads, camouflaging blinds, and how to blow a call at geese. What I want to talk about is getting outside of that 1980’s Johnny come lately box, and taking off the training wheels and helmet and getting into some real stuff, stuff that geese do.
The first topic I want to get of my chest is the Honk… otherwise known as the Hail Call. And yes, I know what you are thinking. This is going to be boring. But stay with me here. The honk is a sound that most people relate to the goose itself. If you where to ask somebody what a goose does… they would say it honks. It’s also the sound that everything else is based around when it comes to blowing a goose call. But when it comes to calling birds and how much a goose uses a honk, well that is where it gets interesting.
Before I started recording audio for the “Bad Grammer” instructional CD, I made a list of all the sounds or notes that I could do on a goose call, ones that I have heard geese do and had live recordings of. As the live recordings were listened to and notes were checked off one by one I started to notice that the honk was still on the “to get” list. Each time I would see that I would just think to myself, “no big deal, I can go out and get that anytime”. Well as the sounds I had recordings of got crossed off, I eventually had one left to get, the honk. I thought to myself, well surely one of the 23 hour long tapes has to have one on it. So I took out tape number one and started to listen, expecting to hear it in the first couple of minutes… but nothing. Then I put in the next tape…. nothing…the next… nothing. I went though all 23 tapes and not one single goose honking in credible audio that I could use. I wondered to myself for a couple minutes what in the hell was going on. It just took me about a week to listen through 23 hours of audio, and not one single honk. I was about ready to punch my eye out. After a couple years of recording this live audio, spending countless hours of going through it, then going back through it, I could not believe I didn’t have a single honk!
Given the situation, I was pretty much mind boggled. I had to start a new quest just to find a honking goose… and not just any honk. I didn’t want a honk from a park. What I wanted to find was a goose using this sound with some consistency when calling other birds. Just like all the other sounds I had recorded so far. I know what you’re probably thinking to yourself, “I can go down to the park and hear a goose honk all the time”, but remember… I’m looking for a honk being used in a similar situation when calling to birds from a feeding field or unprotected environment when territory is on the line.
I started driving around the refuge and found a field that had a couple of thousand geese feeding in it. It just so happened to be one of the fields that we guide out of during the season, so it had pits in it. With it being mid January and around 0 degrees outside, I put on a bums layer of clothing and headed out with my recording equipment in hand. Now keep in mind, it was the harsh part of winter, the geese had just made it through a long and tuff hunting season, so all that was left were the big, mean, and wise gray eyebrows that dominate this neck of the woods. The most important thing this time of year… food equals survival.
The first flock showed up around 2:30 p.m. But this wasn’t just any flock, THESE BOYS WHERE BIG! They scraped the ground they flew over and didn’t make one sound the whole way in. As I was in the pit peaking out of the cracks, they kept getting closer and closer until they landed about ten yards away. The most exposed ground was around the pits from all the traffic during the hunting season, so this made it easier for the birds to get to the food source and also made it perfect for me because they where so close. About 5 minutes later another flock came in and landed down the hill a ways, still no sound. About 5 minutes went by and another flock landed a little ways off, then it was on. Flock after flock after flock began to pour into this field. I’m guessing there were about 300 birds in there and still nothing had made one sound. I just wasted an hour-long tape with nothing but a slight noise from the breeze on it.
The 300 birds soon became 500, and that 500 turned into 750, yet still no sound from any of these giants. As I scanned the field everything was still spread out, and I mean each family group was about 20 feet apart. This was a big structured field so it had that capability. Finally as the number grew to over a 1000 I heard my first sound at 3:50 PM, an hour and twenty minutes from the first flock and finally I heard the softness moan I have ever heard to this day as a goose flew over the top of the field looking for a safe feeding bubble. Just then, the biggest goose in the first flock that showed up let out a honk that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up for the next two weeks. It was gross sounding…something you would hear behind the woodshed, and that was it. Not another word said for about 10 more minutes until a flock of six came low out of the refuge.
One of the six let out a soft, like “my face is frozen”, moan, and instantly that big giant grandpa with bushy gray eyebrows let out another scary a** honk. But this time the flock in the air responded with a moan… which in turn set the old man off his rocker. This old dog started ripping off honks one after another. He started low and got aggressive towards the end as the flock of six got closer and closer. The flock ended up landing right next to this field general. But they didn’t stay there for long because that old man got out of his wheel chair just long enough to chase them half way down the hill. The next flock came out and it was pretty much a replay of the last bunch. It was the same thing over and over again for the next 40 minutes, until it was completely dark. At that point the first flock that showed up, which had the biggest feeding area to itself, left and every other goose followed. The only bird on the ground that made a sound the entire night was the lead bird in that first flock, and the only sound me made the whole time was a honk.
I was in amazement at what had just happened. The cold temperature was an after thought. I had just had one of the greatest learning experiences I’ve ever had with a goose! What more could one hope for? A recording… I guess pushing the record button on my camera was an after thought too. After setting out on a quest to record a goose honking when calling other geese, I had forgotten to press the record button. Even though it was just a honk, I believe that I witnessed one of the greatest audio displays ever put forth by a real goose. I walked out of the field with a hung head, yet I still had a smile on my face.
After that day I was able to get out in the field a few more times, but still no audio of a honking goose. Soon, winter started to turn to spring and the geese began to nest up. The deadline that I placed on myself for getting the CD completed was closing in fast, and I was still in search of another honking goose. In desperation I found a local water hole that had about a half dozen nesting pairs on it. One morning after the birds had left I snuck into the cattails and got myself into a good position to record. As the first pair made its way back with a few soft moans followed by some clucks they landed right next to what appeared to be their potential nesting spot. Pretty soon another pair started to make their way back to the pond. They started making noise about 150 yards out but as soon as they got to about 60 yards that big gander from the first pair started to rip of Honks one after another, and he got more intense as they got closer. The incoming pair landed right next to the first, and then they were immediately chased away. I quickly looked at the camera to see if I remembered to push the red button this time. I was in relief. I had my honking goose.
As I sat there relieved that I could finally finish the CD, it hit me. I had just witnessed two different situations where a goose was using the honk, and they both used them in the same way. While I was mulling this over, another pair began their approach into the water hole, and there it was again. When they hit the 60 yard mark, that big old gander let out another series of honks. Again, the incoming pair ended up landing right next to the first and was promptly chased away. Not only had I recorded the honk being used by a goose calling to other geese, but it had been done by the same type of goose in two different locations during two different seasons. Both times it was a big boss gander warning and defending his territory to approaching geese. Not just from a distance either, even when they set foot. As soon as the big boss gander decided the other geese were incoming to his location he promised them they were in for some wing bone once they got there. Then, he delivered on the promise, all the time using a honk.
Everything that we have been told about the Honk, how it’s a greeting call to the geese and how it’s the note you use to start each flock out with has been debunked by the goose. I mean, I guess it’s a greeting call… you bet. It’s a direct invitation for a trip behind the woodshed. I guess you can start them with a honk, but they better be close and you better finish them with it, because that’s how geese use it to call other geese. What that big gander is saying is, “this is my spot… you have found me and you’re coming here… I accept that… but as soon as you land, game on”. It’s almost like that big boss gander wants them to land right next to him so he can start ripping there tails out sooner. Every flock from that day in the field in the middle of winter, to the pairs coming to the pond in the spring, all landed within feet of this rare honking goose.
You might have had great success starting flocks out with a honk from a distance, and you might have had great success finishing them with a different sound. All I’m telling you that I’ve observed how a goose uses it, and they are the masters of the sport. So the next time you run into some master degree caliber birds, try calling at them like geese do. Especially when they are not saying a lot and when you are where they are going or where they don’t mind being.
With just under 25 hours of audio, I got about a minute and a half of a goose honking. They don’t use it a lot, but when they do they mean business, and the business of a goose is to have his territory to survive and reproduce. The fact behind the honk is that it is not a greeter, but a finisher. And it’s not a welcome, it’s a warning!
Until next time, don’t just sound like him, talk like him.
Scott Threinen