Grouse question

St Pauli

St Pauli

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Durham region
This is just a personal observation, I've been hunting on a buddies land for 5 or 6 years now. We have a "grouse trail" we walk
and it seems the amount of grouse the past few years has declined. We don't over hunt. In most cases we get three to six while up deer
hunting. We would see a bunch while driving in to his property but it seems in the last two years they have become rare to see.
My question is , is the population cyclical? An abundance for a year or two then the population ebbs to rebuild in a few years?

Nothing has really changed in the area, no new roads, no new development, no new industry. Your two cents?
 
Lack of suitable snow for thermal cover in areas without much softwood can also impact them during a cold winter.

Also locally thy seem to follow the hare population within a year or two, probably due to predators switching food sources. Not to be overlooked is any new cats allowed to wander outdoors, they can be murder on grouse and have a surprisingly large impact in their range.
 
Been out twice this year and haven’t bumped one yet. They cycle like everything else, weather, predators and food sources all play a factor. There have been years when I’ve passed on birds as they were the only ones I saw and I just couldn’t bring myself to shoot the singular specimen from a days hunt.

Patrick
 
I had a similar question about grouse and found the Answer to be....Follow the new growth aspen trees.

Grouse prefer new growth aspen as a living habitat. Once the trees mature in age/size the grouse will find a new patch of young growth aspen as it provides better cover and food sources

Try watching “locating ruffed grouse hotspots”. On YouTube
It’s not a hunting tips video. But rather a bird watchers guide to finding
Grouse for “observation”

It’s works great for me.
 
St Pauli said:
This is just a personal observation, I've been hunting on a buddies land for 5 or 6 years now. We have a "grouse trail" we walk
and it seems the amount of grouse the past few years has declined. We don't over hunt. In most cases we get three to six while up deer
hunting. We would see a bunch while driving in to his property but it seems in the last two years they have become rare to see.
My question is , is the population cyclical? An abundance for a year or two then the population ebbs to rebuild in a few years?

Nothing has really changed in the area, no new roads, no new development, no new industry. Your two cents?
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All of Canadian wildlife is on an approximately 7 year cycle. As the numbers of small prey animals like mice and rabbits swell, so do those of game birds and predators, apparently because the grouse are relatively safe from being hunted because of the easier prey that's available. However, as the numbers of mice and rabbits etc reach a peak, they inevitably crash and the predators turn to grouse as their numbers are crashing as well, in other words the rabbits carry everything else down with them. This phenomenon can be traced right back for as long as records have been kept, for instance in the tallies of furs traded by the Hudson's Bay Company, totals go up and down like a regular sine wave if you graph them. And of course as already stated a wet spring that kills grouse chicks has an effect as well, one all of its own no matter where the cycle is. Then we have human encroachment: I've had several happy hunting grounds ruined when a single house went in not too close by, grouse that are being hunted by humans become shy birds and will move out and a house also provides an HQ for dogs and especially cats that can and do hunt them full time with no need to move on as grouse numbers go down.
 
iceman2 said:
Raccoon , skunk and fox populations also take their toll on chicks and eggs. .
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A couple foxes moved onto our property....Still lots of squirrels but the turkeys and grouse have disappeared. Hopefully nature does its cycle...or I take up fox calling :)
 
I also believe that raven populations have a large effect on grouse populations. Ravens have extremely good vision, are very intelligent, learn new behaviours quickly, and can easily kill an adult grouse let alone the chicks. In my area raven populations are high and grouse populations have been low for many years, far beyond the normal population cycles.
A F&W biologist told me many years ago that wet cold May-June is the biggest killer of grouse chicks.
 
bbobie said:
They have a cycle like rabbits, not sure how many yrs . It sounds like they are on the down side
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This is what I’ve been told.

Personally I think that’s a wives tale to an extent, I think it has more to do with Mother Nature than a cycle. Everything is on somewhat of a cycle, they’ll come back.
 
They also change their behaviour over time. If a particular area or road continually gets hammered by locals they will change it up eventually and find a new spot. I’ve witnessed this on certain trails, go a little deeper into the woods and you start flushing them again.

Patrick
 
phinton81 said:
They also change their behaviour over time. If a particular area or road continually gets hammered by locals they will change it up eventually and find a new spot. I’ve witnessed this on certain trails, go a little deeper into the woods and you start flushing them again.

Patrick
Click to expand...

I see this too, if a hot area starts seeing active logging and vehicle traffic increases they move to less busy areas.
 
Everything is on a cycle, and the cycle can be caused by many factors. Lots of grouse this year? Lots of predators next year. Lots of predators next year? Less grouse next year. Less grouse next year? Less Predators the year after that. Less predators the year after that? More grouse the year after that.

Thats a simplistic way of looking at it, but its true. Predation, weather, habitat change all plays a role in any game animal, not just grouse.
 
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