It rained this morning and I thought the season opener might be
washed out. Some sun showed up around 10. By about 11 I had my stuff together and was hunting by 11:45. It was warm but not too bad when
I was in the shade. Checked the thermometer at home just now. Seventy eight degrees and 80 percent humidity.

The red squirrels didn't cuss me out as much as usual. Except for a lot
of mushrooms where they haven't been before, the first thing I saw was
something reddish-brown undulating away from me under a fallen log. It was almost the right color to be a red squirrel but too big. The wrong color to be a gray squirrel, and we don't have fox squirrels here. Mink or marten? Fox? I didn't see it long enough to tell.

Next up were a flight of sandhill cranes. Five, I thought. My wife who
saw them while apple picked said four. Very long necks, too long for
geese, and they made a different sound, as well. I hadn't seen them
in the area I hunt before. I used to see them on a farm in a valley below where I live. Also have seen a pair standing alongside the highway south of Marquette. They can look you in the eye as you pass in your car.

I walked past several spots where grouse flushed before without much excitement. Even walked to a place where I jumped three grouse at once several years ago. Quiet there too.

On the way back to the SUV I jumped one off a hill. It changed direction
just as I shot, and I missed behind it. Best shot I've had all season.

Just being outdoors, toting a gun, communing with Mother Nature in all her glory is all worth it. Never had the chance to hunt grouse, but one of my favorite memories was when this photo was taken. Hunting mountain quail with my trusty Win. Mod 12. I've gone back to that day in my mind at least a million times.

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When I was young I hunted grouse in east Tennessee. There is nothing like grouse hunting with a good dog.

I had a good dog. A Springer.
But it's been many years.
Allergies are the reason I don't have
one now.

Springers are my favorite dogs for upland bird. Over any of the pointers, setters, etc. I love the way they work and I love them as a breed too. Maybe my next dog.

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Oui Chef!

I should add, hunting grouse and woodcock in the thick stuff is particularly challenging AND particularly rewarding, when you’re doing all the work without a dog. Good on you. I do some of that myself.

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Oui Chef!

Made a short trip this morning.
It was breezy and comfortable in the open but
almost too warm where the trees cut the wind.
Saw a flicker and a bunch of small brown birds.
No grouse made an appearance.

Picked a few apples at the last area I hunted.
There's a couple small trees with good tasting
apples there.

Back at the vehicle I heard some geese. Looked for them
before getting in the SUV, but they must have been below the
trees, or up in the clouds that had come in.
Didn't see them.

Nobody out there with me. One advantage of hunting
on Monday while most folks have to be at work.
Glad I got out, despite the quiet in the woods.

Rain in the forecast for the next few days.

Good luck this season, hard to believe it’s been a year since you started hunting grouse last year. I envy that you are so close to the birds. What type of shotgun do you hunt with? Larry

I have a 20 gauge Italian OU that I hunt with most.
Used to use a Winchester Model 12 in 16 gauge.
It was my first good grouse gun.
The 20 is lighter and handier and has a tang safety
which I prefer.

Do you have Woodcock there? We call them “Mudbats” in the native vernacular. Generally mixed in to similar cover that’s holding grouse, in fewer numbers. Generally lower and wetter cover. What a treat to find and take if you can. Not as fast as a grouse, but fly like a knuckleball - hard to put a bead on. Generally don’t flush till you’re about tripping over them either. But impossible to see on the floor.

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Oui Chef!

Grouse hunting is the one thing I miss about not living in the U.P., it is the nicest time of the year there. Good luck !

Mr. Harry:
I have given up shooting woodcock.

First, because I never found a recipe for them that
I liked. Then because I lost access to a 40 full of alders
that had woodcock in it, locals and flight birds, for a while
each fall.

Where I hunt now I almost never see one.

We had almost a week of rain. So I didn't
get out hunting again till today, 9/22. Coincidentally,
it's National Hunting And Fishing Day today.

Very quiet in the woods. Breezy and cool. Some more color
in the trees. A few branches and leaves down due to a wind storm
a few days ago.

I saw no grouse, and not a whole lot of anything else. A few small birds and one flicker that flew up in front of the SUV as I was
heading into my hunting area.

A few years ago I saw one grouse on opening day, then went nine
trips without seeing any. In October all the places that were devoid of
grouse in the early season suddenly had them and I saw nine in one
afternoon. Could happen again, and I hope it does.

Our season here doesn’t even open till the first, of Oct.

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Oui Chef!

I have the very good fortune own a timber tract here in S.C. The previous owner let the brush get out of control. Next spring I plan to do some controlled burning. The state forester tells me that should bring back the quail in a year or so. Since I don't live in East Tennessee anymore, that is as close as I will get to grouse. Of course I can't climb like I used to so maybe quail hunting is a good thing.

When I lived in downstate MI (got out and came to the U.P. again as
fast as I could, eh?) I used to see short lines of quail running across the road out near a community garden in Kalamazoo.

I think the season was closed back then and I didn't have anywhere to hunt anyway. I would like to try quail hunting. When my father and brothers all lived in Jacksonville, FL, I tried to organize a trip to one of the hunting plantations in GA. I was going to drive down and meet them
in the south. Never could get them to agree to it.

I grew up in West Tennessee and we had bobwhite quail to hunt and the occasional woodcock (that we called timber-doodles). I didn't get a chance to hunt grouse until I moved to East Tennessee many years ago. I'm not a good wingshot, but I do love the hunting ...... especially when I'm lucky enough to be with someone that has some good birddogs.

Don

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Laus Deo! <><

Me either. Even when I was shooting skeet I was only a mediocre wing shot. I used to have a Brittaney Spaniel named Sally. She would go on point, I would walk in to flush and miss the shot. Somedays I swear you could see disappointment in that dog's face. She is buried where I hunted a lot near the GSMNP.

I am getting me a dove lease for sure next year. If the quail come back to my timber track like promised I may get another dog. My wife will try to kill me until the dog twists her around it's paw.

Woodsltc, where do you live in Tennessee? I lived in Knoxville.

Just south of there....in Blount County.

Don

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Laus Deo! <><

I jumped a great blue heron off a creek today.
Saw no grouse at all. Fine day, but very quiet again.

Did you say grouse?

three stoogeslook at the grouse - Google Search

Got out today for a while.

A friend showed me a place a bit farther out than I
usually hunt. Apples were everywhere but grouse weren't.
He thought he heard one flush a long way off. I didn't hear
it.

Quite a bit of color in the maples there. In spots we could look
across the highway we'd driven up on. The hills on the other side
of the road looked really good when the sun came out and shone
on them. The photos I took were all when the clouds had rolled in
again.

We may go out together again, if schedules allow.
It was double guns all the way today. He had a Stevens 16 gauge
side by side and I had my Italian OU in 20 gauge.

Still recovering from the Michigan Snipe opener. Lots of effort, but no success.

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Certified Curmudgeon

I hope this is okay to put here. My son has never hunted grouse and I want him to have a good hunt. Is the Grayling area a good spot? It will be a long drive and I hope to make some good memories. Thanks for any help.

I have not hunted grouse in the Lower Peninsula.
I have passed through Grayling and there looks to be some
good country there. I don't know how easy it is to get access, however.

The report I got from the DNR shows flush rates per hours in the
counties around Grayling of 0.71 and 1.14. Some counties in the
U.P. have flush rates of over two grouse per hour.

The MDNR has started areas called managed for grouse called GEMS.
You might look for one in the Grayling area.

I really miss bird hunting... So social and so much fun.

Thank you for the help.

It has been raining way too much to suit me.
Finally cleared up today and the sun won out over clouds that almost
looked like they could hold snow.
My wife and I went out for a combined color tour and grouse hunt.
The color tour went really well. It's not peak color in this area
yet but there are lots of maples that are turned, or turning, orange
and red. Some small oaks have really red leaves as well. Popples are
going yellow as are some birches. We had rain and heavy winds last night but lots of leaves managed to stay on the trees.

We walked a small trail down to a cedar swamp. I have flushed
grouse all along it, and even jumped a few inside the cedars.
Today there were none at all. The DNR predicted a good season saying the birds are nearing the top of the cycle. Sure can't prove it by me.
I have been seeing some interesting critters besides grouse. Today
no Sandhill Cranes, no geese, not even the usual complement of
red squirrels. A strange season, so far.

Any updates? This was back on page 6, Larry

Rain, snow, and a head cold have kept me out of the woods.
It's been October impersonating November out there.

I jumped four grouse last time out (10 days ago, I think.) The first got
up wild, at least 30 yards away. The next three jumped out of real
think cover with a lot of evergreens. They were closer but invisible. I think they flew across a small creek. I didn't see any of the birds.

Moved one deer on another trail. Did not see the head. The bits I did see were big and looked in good shape. Someone may have been running beagles on the other side of the valley. They might have moved the deer, or it might just have been bedded near the trail I was walking.

The sun came out this afternoon.
I hunted the same area as in the post above.
Found it very quiet, except when the remaining oak
and birch leaves moved in the wind.

Saw a red squirrel that forgot to cuss me out.
Had a raven fly over, squawking, and making a large
hush-hush noise with its wings. Heard a barred owl
somewhere below the trail I was on. That was it.

I may have to change my hunting area a bit.

Here in Central Indiana, the Quail, Pheasants and Grouse have been on the
decline for 40 years. Some blame urbanization, coyotes, pesticides, the 76'-77'-78-79' winters, new
agricultural trends, blizzards, loss of fence line vegetation, etc, thus etal.

Anyway, when I was in high school (1971-75), we would go hunting for rabbit, squirrels, quail, pheasant....and would ALWAYS find something. From 75' on, the game started becoming harder to find. So we started hunting further from home and it became a further and further trip to find upland game.

Finally, about 1980, we realized that the hunting we grew up with was gone and we would have to travel further outward, until now it seems that Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakota's have the hunting we used to know.

Now, we have too few Quail to hunt, no Pheasants, lots of Coyote, few rabbits, not enough squirrels
worth trying to hunt, but an abundance of Deer and Turkey. Plus occasional Michigan/Ky Bear or
Cougar! I expect Elk and Buffalo to appear soon, but Upland hunting is over in Central Indiana.

Am I in a deadlands?

The grouse season closes for two weeks on Nov. 14.
December 1 it opens again for a month.

But my grouse hunting is probably over for this year. We
had 20 inches of snow a few days back and more is
expected. I can't even get into some of my favorite grouse
spots with this much snow on the ground.

Deer opener is Nov. 15 and I have an offer of
a blind to hunt out of.

Grouse 2018 was one of the worst seasons I can recall. Birds were mostly absent and rain was way too present. The rain and wind put an abrupt end to color season as well. I am going into the monochrome season with no grouse in the freezer and a lot less views of
maples and birches at peak color than I need to get
through it.

My area of SE Ohio was grouse heaven until winter of 76-77. The
freezing rains we had just about wiped them out. They have never made a come back. There is more grouse cover than there has ever been in my life time. Pesticides and coyotes may be part of the problem. I haven't seen a woodcock in this area for 20 yrs.
My dad use to keep English Setters trained on grouse. We could be in grouse cover in 15 minutes and if limit wasn't taken it was
because you were a poor shot. I won't shoot one now. They need
to be left alone to make a come back.

Reading through this warms my soul. Robert Traver wrote (paraphrasing) “I love to fish because I love the environs where trout live”. The same can be said for grouse.

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Pass it on.
Mark

I’ll be watching for your thread next year. Good luck deer hunting and maybe some late year grouse hunting. Larry