I was able to take advantage of the light snow so far this year and Utah’s new extended blue grouse season the other day and get out and shoot a limit of duskies. Most years by this time the high country is locked up with snow and the season blue grouse season closed at the end of November.  It was still a long hike in and once we got to the highest elevations where the grouse were there was six to twelve inches of snow. Some of it was hard enough to walk on; otherwise it was post-holing all the way.

Sometimes late in the season once there is snow on the ground the blues have all taken to the trees and you don’t flush any from the ground. When this is the case I’m sure you walk under a lot of grouse and they just hold still and let you walk right by; those that do dive out of the tree tops, usually from the backside going 80 mph downhill. They make for a very sporty target.

This time I caught about half of the birds on the ground and half in trees.  The highlight of the day was when Lilly, a young French Brittany I am working tracked and retrieved her first bird, a bird I barely hit through a narrow window in the pine boughs. I watched Lilly work down the air-born scent cone along the flight path of the bird, and then disappear over the edge. She showed up about two minutes later with a big cock blue grouse in her mouth looking very proud of herself.

 

 

A limit of ring-necks, prairie chickens, sharp-tail and a bobwhite. What a day.

It was a spectacular weekend. We got our first snow of the year. In the higher country we received about 4” of wet snow. My guess is that it will all melt off within a few days though. The aspen leaves were spectacular. Blue grouse populations seem to be down in my usual spots. I had a hard time coming up with a limit this weekend. It was a beautiful day though. The aspen leaves made it worth the effort.

 

 

 

One of the things I was able to work on while camping over the fourth of July, was hunting the dogs through forested cover where they quickly loose sight of you. This is as real is it gets for training a dog to hunt forest grouse. This poses a different scenario for a dog that’s use to training on open ground where they can run big and always see you, and you can see them.

While hunting grouse, a dog needs to learn to read the direction you are hunting and anticipate where you are at all times and how to hunt for you when they can’t see you. The other thing they need to do is learn how to find you when they have lost you. They need to learn to circle around and find and follow your scent trail to find you, check in, and keep hunting.

I worked with each of the dogs hunting out through the forest. At first, I would call them back often to me and let them know where I was, especially when I changed directions. Over time, I gave them less and less direction and notice of my location and let them work to me. When they checked back in, I would praise them and cast them off again. Several times during a session with a dog, I also would hide behind a tree and watch while they were out away from me. I wanted them to learn how to circle back and pick up my scent trail and work it out and find me. If they were slow coming back or having a tough time finding me, I would call out their name with a short, quick yell, so they would perk up and have incentive to keep looking, but would have a hard time triangulating my location just from my voice. All the dogs picked this up fairly quickly and would find me using their noses. I think this is critical in a grouse hunting situation, where the cover is fairly thick and they loose sight of you quickly.

We also ran across several grouse roost piles, which got us pumped for the season. We didn’t see any birds, but that is because they were at a much lower elevation with young broods. We were high enough to still have patches of snow, which the dogs loved. We are looking forward to the fall and grouse opener this year.

 

 

 

 

For the Memorial Day holiday we got out and scouted for ruffed grouse. It’s a beautiful time of year to be out, things are greening up and the early spring flowers are coming out. We saw elk everywhere we went. This time of year the ruffed grouse are drumming and a little easier to find. The thumping of their wings against their puffed out chest carries amazingly far. The other thing about it is that it can be deceptively hard to pinpoint. If you are able to locate them, they are sometimes easy to sneak up on to within 20 or 30 yards so you can get a great show as they strut their stuff on a log. They are really awesome birds to watch. I was able to locate six or eight of them in a morning. This fall they won’t be on the exact log, but there is a good chance that there will be some in the area.

 

Well, today we were totally skunked. We went blue grouse hunting and were humbled. The four blues we did finally see late in the day were diving out of Doug fir trees, 50′ up and going mach 5 through the trees. That is one of the toughest shots to make, over your head and diving straight down fast. The problem I had, was stopping my swing. I wasn’t following through and shot over them. On the up side, the weather was fantastic, I saw a porcupine in a tree (luckily for the dogs, not on the ground) and we did find a record book curl-leaf mahogany tree. For a shrub, this thing was huge. It was easily 4 feet in diameter and we estimated it at more than 1000 years old. No grouse, but one huge old tree. It was a great day!

We got snow down to the 8000 ft elevation level yesterday and a freeze down to 5000 ft over night. What does this mean for the blue grouse? Blue grouse are interesting critters, in that they migrate in the reverse direction of everything else. They come down to the edges of the pinyon-juniper zone, around 7000’ to 8000’ in elevation. Early in the season look for these birds, especially the broods lower in the drainages and riparian area. (The young are by far the tastiest!)

The adult males seem to start their migration much earlier, just after breeding they seem to start drifting by toward the high country, whereas, the hens and broods seem to spend more time lower down, then begin their movement upward as it starts to cool off and grasses start to cure out. A hard frost kills off the forbs that they are focusing on, and they begin moving to the high country in earnest. Once all the forb leaves have withered and the berries have shrunk and fallen, and the insects are gone, they switch to eating exclusively pine needles. By this time you should be looking for them in the dark timbered areas near the very top of the mountain. Another tip is to look near edges and steep slopes. These are fairly heavy birds and to escape, they like to be able to flap a few times and bail off an edge where they can glide several hundred yards away from danger and safely hide in a dense pine tree.

So, with this first snow and frost look for these birds to be moving higher in elevation. When you find birds, take careful note of the location, habitat (both ground cover and overhead cover), distance to edges, and time of year. There is something these birds like about that spot at that time of year, and year after year you are likely to find them right around that same spot at roughly the same time of year.    Good Hunting!

 

It’s here, it’s finally here! The opening of grouse season and chukar season is like Christmas for me, and it’s finally here. Forest grouse (Ruffed & blue grouse – now technically Dusky Grouse) opened last weekend and chukar and sage-grouse opened yesterday. We’ve been out three times now and had a great time. The dogs were in good shape and I was pleased with how well they did. I was a little worried about bird numbers since it was so dry this spring and early summer, but they seem to have done pretty well. That said, so far I have had a higher ratio of adult birds to first year birds in the bag, but numbers seem to be pretty good.
I usually wait a month or so to really get after chukars since it is so hot in the low country and can be brutal on the dogs. Instead, I focus on grouse for the first month with a few short chukar hunts sprinkled in for seasoning. I have yet to get a ruffed grouse this week. I checked out a few of my favorite spots, but they have given me the slip. Annie, a little Brittany I am working with, worked one up Friday, but it was so thick I didn’t have a shot. (I think the grouse like it that way.) Yesterday, Arya, a 13 month old brittany I am working with did a fantastic job on blues and came up with a wounded one that had sailed way off. I was ecstatic, especially since it completed my limit.

 

 

I have been thinking about next season and getting my kids out hunting with me. As far as building a kid’s interest in hunting, there is nothing better than blue grouse hunting. (The Blue Grouse was recently renamed dusky grouse by the American Ornithologist’s Union. I think they did so, because they were way behind the botanists in the name changing department and wanted to try to catch up.)

Blue grouse (dusky grouse) is a perfect game bird to introduce a youngster on and help build their passion for hunting and for the outdoors for the following reasons: First, they are fairly easy to shoot, second, they are relatively easy to find and generally it’s easy walking, third, they are found on public land, and fourth, they are tasty.

Blue grouse are way overlooked in the west, and as a consequence are often not very wily and can be shot on the ground or off a tree limb by a youngster still learning how to point a scatter gun. As a side note, when you put a dog on them, they act very differently and are much sportier. I will say that there is a reason they are nick named the fool’s hen. They can make a fool out of you. They seem so dumb walking in front of you, but when you try to close the gap just a bit, or try to clear a low tree limb for a good shot and they’ll disappear through some downfall, around a tree and flush safely from the back side, giving you no shot..

Blue grouse are relatively easy to find. Once you have an understanding of what habitat type and density of overhead cover and downed logs/debris they prefer, you can get pretty efficient at locating birds. Once you find birds, mark the spot on your map, it’s the habitat they are keying in on and there will likely be birds year after year. Also, in most of the mountain ranges in the west, there are roads that take you near the top of the mountain, which is where you’ll find the birds in October and November. Once you are in grouse habitat, you can usually stay on a contour and the walking isn’t too strenuous. This is all relative of course, but compared to chukar hunting, it’s a walk in the park.

Third, grouse can be found on public land, so you don’t have to worry about finding land owners and securing permission. These lands, our National Forests and some high elevation BLM lands are some of the most beautiful places in the world. We are lucky here in Utah to have something like 80+% of the state in public ownership. (Truth be told, I wouldn’t trade that for all the pheasants in Nebraska.)

Finally, blue grouse are tasty. This is particularly true if you can get them before they switch over to their winter diet of pine needles. This switch usually occurs in mid to late November, or when the frost kills the forbs and insects and the snow begins to fly. Our favorite way to prepare it is to cube it up and marinate it in a fajita mix and fry it up with onions and peppers and wrap it in a tortilla with sour cream, cheese and salsa. Wow, it’s yummy!

Last year we had a fun experience. We were headed out on a family hike on the forest near our house in Sevier County. Since it was grouse season and we were headed to a really grousey area, I threw in the 16 and a couple of bird dogs just to keep us safe from attacking duskies. (At least that’s what I told my wife.) As we were bumping along the 2-track road, my daughter (7 yrs) said, “Hey Dad, there’s some quail.”  I thought, “Quail?” Then I realized she probably meant grouse. I never saw them, but sitting in the back seat, she picked them up like a good bird dog.

Needless to say, it was fun getting a nice point (a gimme really), and shooting a brace of birds all with my family right there. Now Sarah can’t wait until next season to go grouse hunting with Dad.

   

A special thanks to David Anderson for the awesome family grouse hunting photos. Thanks David!