How are upland bird numbers in your area?

I've been combining bird hunting with the annual wood hunt. I drive out, hunt first, then cut enough birch to fill up the truck. There are tons of birds so far. Saw a flock of about ten ruffiies on the road on Saturday. Sprucies are everywhere. I'm up to 8 already, once I'm done with the wood, I'll get serious about the birds until moose season.
 
You guys are driving me nuts! I was at it again for a few hours today...logged almost 14 clicks on foot...and did not see a single bird. I am going to be poring over maps this week in order to find yet another location for next weekend...gets a little frustrating to put in this much effort for negligible return.
 
Everything being equal, I have hopes the ruffed population is rebounding here now, an upswing on the 7 year cycle. But I haven't gone out to look, whatever happens I'll be hitting the double barrel soon enough. I do wish the woodcock population would recover to the point it was at decades ago, as it is I hope I will resist shooting any if I encounter them. But one does get pretty keyed up walking the klicks necessary for the wily eastern grouse....
 
Well, I can officially predict a good season. Got five today in under an hour, eating partridge soup right now. Seem to be getting at least two every time i go out.
 
I mentioned on another thread that we just got back from a week of wingshooting, fishing and unproductive moose hunting... the wingshooting was exceptional and the fishing was good. We shot mixed bags of spruce, ruffed and sharptail grouse. Daily limits are 5 of spruce/ruffed (combined) plus 5 sharpies per hunter, thus for my son and I, we can take twenty birds a day with 60 in total (30 ruffed/spruce plus 30 sharpies)... we came home with our 60 bird possession limit, and we ate birds in the bush to stay ahead of the possession limit. Birds for breakfast with eggs, birds for lunch with beans, deep fired bird fingers for supper with fries etc...

My impressions of the population, as compared to other years, are that the overall numbers are up, but the average family group sizes are a couple birds smaller than usual. My interpretation is that breeding conditions were favourable, but predator numbers are up. There was a lot of sign of skunks, martin, foxes and coyotes... there was a lot of older and fresh scat with grouse feathers mixed in.

Here is a short photo essay of the week;

A typical mornings hunt mixed bag of spruce, ruffed and sharptail grouse, this morning was a little heavy on spruce, but usually there are mostly sharpies and ruffed.

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Here is an unusal mostly white male spruce grouse... I have never seen this colouration before;

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jables said:
Looks like a great trip Hoyt, very interesting coloration on that male sprucey. Thanks for sharing!
Click to expand...

It was a great week... I should mention that the springer is "Lexie" my son's dog... he did all the training and did it well. She performed amazingly well all week long. She not only retrieved all of the birds but found and put up half of them. With sharpies, we locate family groups in old cuts, Hudson then circles Lexie into them with whistle commands to give us the best wingshooting angle. After the initial flush and shots, we mark where the birds land out on the flats and then work Lexie through the area putting the birds up in singles and pairs... at that point is is a lot like a good pheasant hunt... wingshooting fun.
 
Nice!!!!!

Our local woods are inundated with coyotes and bobcats and our fields are inundated with foxes and feral cats, so our numbers are low. I imagine that there are areas, here in NS, that are higher.
 
Wow. Sounds like you guys had a great time. I am dogless and hunt on foot...my golden, while birdy and a good retriever, is unfortunately gun shy ( he was an adult dog I took in, that needed to be re homed due to change in circumstances). I usually have my daughter for company. But, you have given me hope that I will find birds somewhere!
 
Weather took a major swing this morning... Mercury is falling and so is a little bit of snow...

Was trying to cut across an elk herds trail but 30min from legal light I gave up...

Took these 4 ruffies on my way back to the hiway all within a mile of country road.






The season is just starting to get good ;)
 
I've had a few days out now, mostly the same results: lots of walking just to see one or two birds (ruffed grouse). Only saw one today and missed that one, because it was at the end of a long day of seeing nothing and I let my guard down. I think I'll hang up the shotgun for this year and leave the little buggers to go out and breed.
 
It's a very good year up here.....five minute walk tonight, five ruffies, saw around ten. Think I'll hang up the moose rifle and just keep bird hunting.
 
It has been really wet and we have been really busy but finally managed to get out for a short hunt two days ago. Harley was anxious and bumped a number of birds but we finally connected and a perfect retrieve. The numbers are way up and I was into 40 plus birds in about 8 bunches in a short time. They were spooky and not much set up time. This and the season started on Sept. 10th. I did not have to go deep country, this was right off the road. Project is winding down so will be out a lot until Nov. 15th from now on.
 
Haven't been out for a couple of weeks because of turmoil within the family. However, as a result, I needed a day to recharge. So, I went out and took a 5 hour walk today. Don't know how many clicks I covered as it was a new spot. However, at the end of it all, this tired but rejuvenated middle aged hunter came home with 5 birds out of about a dozen seen.
 
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