Some sportsmen actually fly near their blinds kites that resemble flying geese. When flocks of geese approach, hunters pull the kites down to simulate geese landing in the field. Gregarious creatures, live geese might follow the fake ones to the ground.

"I like kites," Smith said. "Kites are constantly moving. I’ve watched geese fly right over kites and hover over them. We sometimes have to pull in kites tight because they are so effective. I only fly them about 20 to 30 feet off the ground."

Probably more than do other geese, specklebellies frequently fall incidentally to duck hunters. In many ways, specklebelly hunting closely resembles duck hunting. For instance, people might chase snow geese up and down the delta, but they can usually call specklebellies to a blind with a few good notes and properly placed decoys. Frequently, duck hunters might fill a limit with mallards and specklebellies on the same morning in many places.

"Specklebellies sure changed the way we look at goose hunting in this part of Arkansas," said Charles "Hammer" Snapp of Davy Crockett Hammertime Guide Service in Walnut Ridge. "Over the past several years, I’ve seen a noticeable change in goose hunting in Arkansas. I’ve seen record numbers of specklebellies, especially early in the season."

Snapp hunts about 8,000 acres of flooded timber, moist-soil units and crop fields in northeast Arkansas. In the crop fields, he generally hunts out of pit blinds surrounded by duck decoys. However, he usually puts a few specklebelly or Canada goose decoys off to one side and keeps his ears tuned for the raucous cackling of lonely specks.

"What tends to shock me is that very few people in northeast Arkansas hunt specklebellies," Snapp said. "Many people kill them when duck hunting, but they are really sensitive to seeing specklebelly or perhaps Canada decoys. Specklebellies are far more responsive to calls in smaller groups than snows and blues. It doesn’t take dozens of decoys to get specklebellies to respond. They might respond to three or six decoys. The addition of a couple specklebelly decoys to a duck spread also builds confidence for ducks."

In recent years, Snapp has spotted increasing numbers of specklebellies in his part of Arkansas. He credits geography and increased agricultural production, especially rice, with attracting more birds. Arkansas now leads the nation in rice production with much of that growing in the northeastern part of the state.

"Five or six counties in northeast Arkansas produce more rice than the rest of the state put together," Snapp said. "Southeast Missouri also produces a lot of rice. That provides a major food source for wintering waterfowl well north of the old feeding grounds on the prairies of southern Arkansas. Therefore, birds that used to winter in south Arkansas or Louisiana now winter in northeast Arkansas or southeast Missouri instead of moving farther south."

Birds coming down from Oklahoma, Missouri and the Great Plains pour through a natural funnel between the foothills of the Ozark Mountains to the west and Crowley’s Ridge to the east. When they arrive in the floodplains of northeast Arkansas, they discover abundant food from rice and stay in the vicinity.