March Madness

Not basketball related. Went for a stomp through a new woodcock cover this afternoon and managed to put up a couple birds. Cedar was running fast and careless as we moved up the spring seep on the side hill, bumping all three birds, one of which he managed to relocate and pin down at the top of the ridge. The cover is real nice and recently gifted to the town and opened to the public. It is only a couple miles from where I grew up and was able to enjoy a bit of nostalgia as the Ford weaved it's way down the narrow roads I used to pedal my bicycle on. The fallow pasture is young, Cedar and I will have many years of gunning flight birds here which makes me grateful. Many of the doodle coverts I hunt are aging out and it was a refreshing to step into this piece today. We had two grouse flush wild in this piece of pole timber which was an added bonus. Hope pup and I will be fortunate enough to see another October...only six more months, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Crunching Numbers

Heres the stats from my 2010 - 11 Ruffed Grouse season. Sad but true.

60 hours afield
82 flushes
2 grouse harvested

Flush rate of 1.4 per hour, down from 1.7 last season.

Mind you that half of the recorded flushes were only heard, never seen and half the birds seen were bumped by the pup who still has a fair amount of chase in him. I'm operating under the guise that 2 for 20 isn't to awful, pretty much par for the course as far as grouse hunting goes in my neck of the woods. Right in line with something I once read in a Spiller book, which softens the blow a little bit.

Cedar's first season involved a good amount of wild bird contact and he learned a few priceless lessons in regard to "ol Ruff.