Final Session
The 2019 New Hampshire and Vermont grouse hunting seasons are nearly over now. Only one day left to pursue partridge, in the hopes of having one or two of them over as dinner guests. My pack and I have been out a few times in the past week, with mostly nothing to show for our efforts.
Our lack of deep snow to this point in the season has allowed us to get out in to some of the places that we like to chase grouse around, but the icy woods roads are nowhere for us to be right now, so many of our coverts are inaccessible. The logging roads are treacherously slick at the moment. We have indulged in some pretty long walks over the last week, and while the dogs have given it everything they had, we have moved precious few grouse. It's not that they're not there - tracks, anywhere from a couple of days old to those made relatively recently have been come across, but we almost never located the birds. As you would imagine, small conifers bordering on areas of mature conifers were often the location of the tracks. Grouse love to have easily accessible heavy cover to escape to in a pinch.
Our lack of deep snow to this point in the season has allowed us to get out in to some of the places that we like to chase grouse around, but the icy woods roads are nowhere for us to be right now, so many of our coverts are inaccessible. The logging roads are treacherously slick at the moment. We have indulged in some pretty long walks over the last week, and while the dogs have given it everything they had, we have moved precious few grouse. It's not that they're not there - tracks, anywhere from a couple of days old to those made relatively recently have been come across, but we almost never located the birds. As you would imagine, small conifers bordering on areas of mature conifers were often the location of the tracks. Grouse love to have easily accessible heavy cover to escape to in a pinch.
It's especially good when the escape cover is close to food for the birds. The act of feeding is when a grouse is at its most vulnerable, so escape cover in close proximity is essential for grouse. While many food sources that grouse use earlier in the season are now gone, there's still a multitude of buds, catkins, and even berries (high bush cranberries, mountain ash, and even crabapples) that provide nourishment deep in to winter. Locating food sources is your first job as a grouse hunter.
That was my thought this morning, as we hunted a cover bursting with wild apples and high bush cranberries each fall. While the apples are nearly all gone now, the distinctive red offerings of the high bush cranberries are still prominent. There's also a ton of small and medium sized spruce in this covert as well, so perhaps the birds feel more security here as they go about feeding themselves.
It didn't take long for Bode to move a bird out of those spruces, and fortunately for me, it flew straight down the trail in front of me. Even I couldn't botch this one, and we had a bird in the vest, probably our last one for the year, and hard earned if you ask me. We've been out five or six times in December, and we've probably moved ten birds total, so it was about time that one of them made a mistake for us.
That was my thought this morning, as we hunted a cover bursting with wild apples and high bush cranberries each fall. While the apples are nearly all gone now, the distinctive red offerings of the high bush cranberries are still prominent. There's also a ton of small and medium sized spruce in this covert as well, so perhaps the birds feel more security here as they go about feeding themselves.
It didn't take long for Bode to move a bird out of those spruces, and fortunately for me, it flew straight down the trail in front of me. Even I couldn't botch this one, and we had a bird in the vest, probably our last one for the year, and hard earned if you ask me. We've been out five or six times in December, and we've probably moved ten birds total, so it was about time that one of them made a mistake for us.
Looks like work beckons for tomorrow, so it is likely that my grouse hunting season is done, but at least it ended on a high note. The coming few months will hopefully be spent on snowshoes, exploring new areas and keeping the dogs fit.
The goal for 2020 is to find a few new areas for guiding. As with each season, some of the coverts that we hunt become our favorites, and therefore get more pressure from our excursions as the season goes on. Some of our coverts have matured past the point of reliable grouse numbers, so they have gone out of our rotation. Anyone that has hunted in northern NH knows that the amount of cover here is staggering, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find some new spots - but I'm not telling where ...
The goal for 2020 is to find a few new areas for guiding. As with each season, some of the coverts that we hunt become our favorites, and therefore get more pressure from our excursions as the season goes on. Some of our coverts have matured past the point of reliable grouse numbers, so they have gone out of our rotation. Anyone that has hunted in northern NH knows that the amount of cover here is staggering, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find some new spots - but I'm not telling where ...
