Tracks
Ahhh ... winter grouse hunting. While it's not the easiest of the seasons of grouse hunting here in northern New Hampshire, it can be rewarding at times. The birds, when you find them, are often in groups as they are are usually sharing a food source or heavy cover to get out of the winter weather. There's also not many, if any, other hunters out there. Those are two of the positive aspects of grouse hunting in the winter. Unfortunately, there's a few drawbacks to this part of the season as well.
We discovered those drawbacks yesterday, though it was still good to get some fresh air after three weeks off from the grouse woods. Our firearms deer hunting season concluded on Sunday, so it was good to get out to see what's been happening with the birds. Of course, the woodcock are long gone now, and we're dealing with the true survivors of October. The grouse that we pursue at this time of the season have successfully navigated the heavy pressure that they received in October and early November, and even made it past the occasional deer hunter looking for an easy meal.
Rosie, Bode and I walked a long way yesterday, doing a route that I would usually undertake a month or two earlier. At a certain point however, it becomes too late to turn back on the same track, so you might as well forge ahead to make it a true loop. The first part wasn't too bad, as some truck and snowmobile tracks provided a good surface for walking, but when those tracks ended, the real fun began. It was truly trudging through a foot of snow after that, and it would have been entirely impossible if not for the recent deer hunter tracks that I kept finding myself following. In the end, it was exhausting, as I frequently wished I was on skis or snowshoes, and without a shotgun ...
The dogs cleared a good swath for me to walk through, but they even lost steam after a couple of hours. The last two hours of our trek were a battle for them too. Still, they checked all of the most likely hiding places for grouse in the winter - clumps of spruce and fir along the trails. There was one moment of excitement where Rosie went on point in an area of cedar and spruce, but whatever had been there was gone.
There were no tracks either - we never saw a grouse track the entire time yesterday. While the deer, snowshoe hare, red squirrel, chipmunk, moose and even mouse tracks were plentiful, the bonasa umbellus tracks were absent. That lack of positive reinforcement can put doubt in to any grouse hunter's psyche. This amount of snow also makes many of our October coverts inaccessible for winter grouse hunting - just too much snow and ice to reach some of the spots I like to get in to. We will seek lower elevations later this week as we put a wrap on another grouse season.
We discovered those drawbacks yesterday, though it was still good to get some fresh air after three weeks off from the grouse woods. Our firearms deer hunting season concluded on Sunday, so it was good to get out to see what's been happening with the birds. Of course, the woodcock are long gone now, and we're dealing with the true survivors of October. The grouse that we pursue at this time of the season have successfully navigated the heavy pressure that they received in October and early November, and even made it past the occasional deer hunter looking for an easy meal.
Rosie, Bode and I walked a long way yesterday, doing a route that I would usually undertake a month or two earlier. At a certain point however, it becomes too late to turn back on the same track, so you might as well forge ahead to make it a true loop. The first part wasn't too bad, as some truck and snowmobile tracks provided a good surface for walking, but when those tracks ended, the real fun began. It was truly trudging through a foot of snow after that, and it would have been entirely impossible if not for the recent deer hunter tracks that I kept finding myself following. In the end, it was exhausting, as I frequently wished I was on skis or snowshoes, and without a shotgun ...
The dogs cleared a good swath for me to walk through, but they even lost steam after a couple of hours. The last two hours of our trek were a battle for them too. Still, they checked all of the most likely hiding places for grouse in the winter - clumps of spruce and fir along the trails. There was one moment of excitement where Rosie went on point in an area of cedar and spruce, but whatever had been there was gone.
There were no tracks either - we never saw a grouse track the entire time yesterday. While the deer, snowshoe hare, red squirrel, chipmunk, moose and even mouse tracks were plentiful, the bonasa umbellus tracks were absent. That lack of positive reinforcement can put doubt in to any grouse hunter's psyche. This amount of snow also makes many of our October coverts inaccessible for winter grouse hunting - just too much snow and ice to reach some of the spots I like to get in to. We will seek lower elevations later this week as we put a wrap on another grouse season.
