Grouse question

Yes they are cyclic which is pure weather and food reliant. As mentioned they do require soft snow for thermal protection in winter, especially in my part of world where it can get quite cool in winter. Aspen buds are a big food source. Spring hatches can be decimated by cold and wet. Grouse are at the bottom of food chain, they get preyed upon by many. A three year old grouse is considered elderly in their world. Stray cats and plain old house cats can also be hard on the young in your part of world. I have a lot of grouse and snow shoe rabbits on my property and I don't shoot any, I go down the road a piece and shoot the governments grouse. I have several pairs of Lynx and fox on the property so I leave the grouse and snow shoe rabbits alone to feed the fox and Lynx as I like to see them.
 
Not a personal observation but research indicates raptors are the hardest on grouse populations in a natural setting. Nothing natural about feral cats and overfed predators in areas that support many other types of prey as well. Say a farming area that provides excellent forage for foxes and coyotes because of mice #'s etc, pretty hard on grouse when they are raising their chicks. Do others find this? Our area is fairly natural ( logging) and the numbers do trend but IMO spring weather during the first few weeks after hatching is the most important. Cold and wet is very bad news. If all the chicks die they may raise another batch. This is from research not personal observation, but if one chick survives then no chance of a second batch.
 
Best years for ruff tend to be dry spring and summer conditions. Often too, one part of a province can have super high bird numbers and a few hundred miles away they are only fair. Burnt over bush or logged tend to be good for ruff.
 
Well good news for me anyway, i talked to my buddy he was just up at his property and said he saw 10-12 grouse on his walks over his days up
at the property. There is a big patch of thorns with red berries they like to hang out in and sure enough they are there. Looks like some chicken for hunting season.
We will only harvest two or three so as not to rid the property of future birds.
 
St Pauli said:
Well good news for me anyway, i talked to my buddy he was just up at his property and said he saw 10-12 grouse on his walks over his days up
at the property. There is a big patch of thorns with red berries they like to hang out in and sure enough they are there. Looks like some chicken for hunting season.
We will only harvest two or three so as not to rid the property of future birds.
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hawthorns. aka thornapples. I had grouse eating haws in the yard of my camp pretty much every evening this fall. Seemed to be a bumper crop.
 
Grouse have a cycle. When population is high the predators arent. Then it swings the other direction. Predators climb and small game declines. I agree that wet springs are good for nesting either. Hammer those preds!
 
mrgoat said:
Yes they are cyclic which is pure weather and food reliant. As mentioned they do require soft snow for thermal protection in winter, especially in my part of world where it can get quite cool in winter. Aspen buds are a big food source. Spring hatches can be decimated by cold and wet. Grouse are at the bottom of food chain, they get preyed upon by many. A three year old grouse is considered elderly in their world. Stray cats and plain old house cats can also be hard on the young in your part of world. I have a lot of grouse and snow shoe rabbits on my property and I don't shoot any, I go down the road a piece and shoot the governments grouse. I have several pairs of Lynx and fox on the property so I leave the grouse and snow shoe rabbits alone to feed the fox and Lynx as I like to see them.
Click to expand...
A few years back I seen a three year old willow ptarmigan just west of Cold Lake. It looked like d of comical because it looked almost as large as a barnyard chicken. I held off shooting it because I thought it was a hen spruce grouse with its molted brown coat in September. Turns out it was willow ptarmigan still in its warmer months plumage.

More experienced upland bird hunters in nearby Saskatchewan gave me the low down.

Willow Ptarmigan exhibit irruptive behavior. Which is fancy talk for some years they move further south than others for nesting season.

That's what I was told anyways.

Nice to see ptarmigan as huntable species here NE Alberta. This has not always been the case here.
 
I ‘m not a dedicated grouse hunter,most of my grouse are seen on FS roads but we didn’t see many this year either on our deer hunt up above Savona ,saw a few,but not near what I expected
 
Just a personal observation with no scientific backing but I suspect some natural selection is at work. I always seem to notice the skittish and more alert grouse vs. the dumb ones that just sit there even when you miss shooting them. I suspect the “ dumb” gene is slowly eliminated and nature selects for the “alert” gene ( if there’s even such a thing!)

So grouse become harder to find over time as they become more wary of human predation.
Darwin at work!
 
Anthropomorphic there. They are birds. The chicks are the dumb ones. Survive, gain experience and become smarter.

They survive because one hen can have a large clutch. Birds frequenting roads and trails die. Many more, unseen in the bush. Mostly I leave them alone, leave them for the 12 yr olds.
 
Still alive said:
Just a personal observation with no scientific backing but I suspect some natural selection is at work. I always seem to notice the skittish and more alert grouse vs. the dumb ones that just sit there even when you miss shooting them. I suspect the “ dumb” gene is slowly eliminated and nature selects for the “alert” gene ( if there’s even such a thing!)

So grouse become harder to find over time as they become more wary of human predation.
Darwin at work!
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Not harder to find from my experience, as they all need gravel or grit in their crops to help down grind food to digest it. They’re just quicker, which means you have to be quicker when you see them.

We raise chickens and I see a lot of similarities in feeding and behaviour between the two. I spend a bit of time watching my chickens as they’re entertaining but I also have picked up a lot of behaviour and body language from them that has helped me while out grouse hunting. They both need grit and will come out to the road and both will sun themselves if the weather all of a sudden changes from wet and cold to sunshine.
 
Butcherbill said:
Not harder to find from my experience, as they all need gravel or grit in their crops to help down grind food to digest it. They’re just quicker, which means you have to be quicker when you see them.

We raise chickens and I see a lot of similarities in feeding and behaviour between the two. I spend a bit of time watching my chickens as they’re entertaining but I also have picked up a lot of behaviour and body language from them that has helped me while out grouse hunting. They both need grit and will come out to the road and both will sun themselves if the weather all of a sudden changes from wet and cold to sunshine.
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You and nowarningshot have great points. I didn’t think about the young chick issue. My wife raises free range laying hens also but I’ve never paid much attention to them except when it’s my turn to gather eggs!
 
@Still alive I used to spend hours watching them when we were still living in New West and only had 12-15 layers in the backyard, so entertaining. I’m glad something was learned from my days off sitting in a lawn chair drinking wobbly pops and watching the birds ;)

Once we started keeping roosters I noticed how the ladies would flock to him and look to him for guidance, which was his job. I’ve noticed with grouse the same thing and have used it to my advantage a couple times, when you come upon a group of grouse and there’s clearly a larger male leading them. Shoot the leader, the rest often freeze up and don’t flush. Allowing you to drop most of the group if your quick, I’ve nabbed 4 of 5 spruce grouse like this last year and had a couple double headers this year with ruffies. It’s been a stellar year this season for hunting grouse.
 
@Butcherbill,
Chickens in your backyard in NW? Must have been a while ago. Now you find drunks!
Glad you actually learnt something while drinking!
I gotta try that grouse trick next time I go hunting. I shoot them with a .22, not a .410 or 20ga. I’m still a newbie so just seeing a grouse makes me happy! I’ve seen guys go at them with .308s and 7mmMag from close range to 100yds. Not one actually got a hit as they were aiming for the head.
 
Still alive said:
@Butcherbill,
Chickens in your backyard in NW? Must have been a while ago. Now you find drunks!
Glad you actually learnt something while drinking!
I gotta try that grouse trick next time I go hunting. I shoot them with a .22, not a .410 or 20ga. I’m still a newbie so just seeing a grouse makes me happy! I’ve seen guys go at them with .308s and 7mmMag from close range to 100yds. Not one actually got a hit as they were aiming for the head.
Click to expand...

We kept chickens in the backyard in New West from 2014 till we moved in 2016, the city allowed three hens at the time and roosters weren’t allowed. We started with 12-15 iirc and would go up to 25 depending on hatch sizes, once we had 16 roosters out of a dissenter eggs that hatched lol. We had awesome neighbors, they all liked the chickens and bought eggs from us now and again. Nobody ever called the city on us, even when the roosters started crowing pre dawn as we were growing them out for meat. Either they didn’t mind the noise or they just thought we were allowed to have that many birds hahaha. We were one of three houses on the block that was keeping chickens so that helped I’m sure, Queensborough is a cool community like that. Or was when we were living there.


My friend up in Squamish was out deer hunting with no luck one year, he head shot a grouse with an Enfield lol.
 
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