Cold & Blustery
Cold and blustery. Two words that you rather were not used in the same sentence, let alone together, especially when it comes to describing conditions for grouse hunting. While cold really isn't a problem for hunters or dogs, blustery can make things much more challenging when we're pursuing the King of Gamebirds. Windy days make grouse more jumpy, skittish and downright anti-social - I know that's hard to believe. Even on the best days, grouse can be difficult for dogs to pin down and for hunters to get to them in time, but windy days stack the odds heavily in the grouse's favor.
That is how it has been here in New Hampshire's north country the last two days. Temps in the 30's and low 40's, with a healthy wind (20 MPH in most cases) to cool things off a little more. While each dog has had good moments in the grouse woods, they have also seemed to struggle at times when the wind was blowing harder or in the wrong direction. The gusting, swirling winds made things difficult for sure, but we still contacted a lot of birds the last two days.
Tuesday's tally was 20 grouse and 2 woodcock moved, while Wednesday was even better - 20 grouse and 12 woodcock bothered. Paul bagged a grouse each day (he only shoots grouse), but there were a few grouse each day that will be haunting his dreams, especially when the hunting season is over. The highlight was a sticking point in heavy roadside cover that Monty had on three grouse. All three took off separately, and all three evaded the shot pattern of Paul's normally dependable shotgun. Cruel is the only way to describe this sport at times.
The strategy the last two days was a simple one. Hunt the "low spots" where grouse like to take refuge when it's windy - perhaps in these areas the wind isn 't too bad and the grouse can rest a little easier from the threat of predators. The low spots, or hollows, aren't necessarily low elevation areas, but they are lower elevation compared to the remainder of the cover. We also hunted some productive roadside cover as well and did very well. When its cold, the grouse have to eat, and when they eat, they need a source of gravel to help process the food that they take in. Roads have gravel ...
It will be the coldest night of the fall tonight, with expected daytime highs tomorrow of 32 degrees or so. Oh, and we're supposed to have winds of 15 - 25 MPH, with gusts up to 40 MPH ...
We'll have our work cut out for us, that's for sure.
