I went north of Sudbury as usual to hunt grouse. Last year I didn't go, but before that I used to go few times each fall. It used to be very good. I usually shoot my limit of 15 grouse in 3 days and go home.
This year the grouse numbers are not good, they weren't good 2 years ago either.
Not sure what happened there.. it cannot be explained by hunting pressure, most of the time I hunt overgrown old trails which are not accessible to ATV hunters. Even driving the roads, I only saw 2 birds on shoulders, usually I see many more. Many spots produced no birds at all.
Ivy stayed home, 3 dogs was a bit much to sleep in the car with and she also rubbed her armpit raw when a strap of her vest slipped in a wrong place few days ago.
I left on Sunday (Canadian Thanksgiving), stopped halfway there near Grundy lake, hunted 2 spots for 30-40 min each, flushed one grouse at each, no shots. No woodcock either, the second place usually holds woodcock. It's also pretty dry in the woods.
Hunted about 2 hours in 2 spots at my final destination. The first one - nothing. Luna pointed non-productive (NP), then she chased something up to 160 m away. It had to be a hare. Liza follows her mom most of the time. Luna came back panting hard (it was 18 C) and with a bloody tongue.
The second spot just before dark produce 3 flushes of spruce grouse, I shot one off a tree branch.
I drove to another spot to park on level ground and camp for the night. I made a mistake and pulled into some overgrown trail. The next morning I heard grouse flutter from branch to branch, after light breakfast I went there and shot one spruce grouse from a tree branch. There were probably more...
It was very very wet, sunny morning, I had to put on rain pants, but my shirt got soaked going through tag alders overgrowing the trail. I think I heard one more flush on this trail.
Then I drove to the next spot, where I planned to sleep initially. Walking on 'road' part there, I saw nothing, saw three 410 ga shells in one spot there, so road hunters got some birds there.
When I walked into overgrown part of the trail. I shot one ruffed grouse from a branch and I heard another flush later.
I ate lunch, fed the dogs and we drove off to another spot. Luna pointed NP, then 5 min later flushed the only wc of the trip. No grouse. Next spot, no grouse, I was hoping for wc, but nothing.
Next spot - nothing.
Then I saw grouse running across the side road. I stopped and put Liza out. She smelled it right away, but started going backwards, I called her to me to put her in the right direction and she went into the bush and flushed it. I heard the grouse clucking at her from a tree. Liza is very vocal, she barks and yelps if something is getting away from her or even when she can't find Luna.
Then I drove to the next spot and parked for the night, cause we were all tired. Luna clocked 25 km and Liza was not far behind.
Both mornings it was 6 C, the second day no dew and it was around 10 C by 1-2 pm
I hunted 2 spots. One next to the camp, the dogs found and pointed dead spruce grouse. Luna retrieved it. I guess someone shot it off the road and didn't bother go and look. Damn road hunters.
The bird didn't smell bad, so it had to be from the day before.
This walk produced nothing. Then I drove to one more spot, one flush next to the truck, then in the end, one more.
The last spot I hunted was the same spot I shot the first spruce, but this time we saw nothing again.
Altogether, very poor bird numbers, less than one flush per hour. Dogs didn't point anything productive. Luna doesn't have enough experience hunting grouse. She runs them too hot on ground scent and flushes. It's like she's trying to catch them. Liza has no idea what she's doing. She's behind her mom 90% of the time. She has good search though and has decent nose, I think.
The shot birds she wanted to pick up and gave good plucking to one of them (guts were out).
I will teach her HOLD soon.
On the way back I wanted to check out one area south of Sudbury for wc, it's Mowat CN road and it's just north of hw69 and hw522 intersection. Nothing there. Talked to an old fella on a quad, he says grouse numbers are not good and so everything else is down - moose and deer (bad winters)
I also stopped after sunset at Tiny, but no wc were flying.
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