Another Rowdy Grouse Story

 

"There are moments when everything turns out right.  Don't let them alarm you.  They pass.” ~ Jules Renard

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

This is a quick story about hunting Ruffed Grouse with Rowdy today.  As always, if a hunting story would offend you, please stop reading now.

I learned from Jerry Kolter last year about grouse “Broods” and brooding behavior.

The brood sticks together for as long as they can while the cover can support them.  When the weather turns cold, the leaves fall and the predators inevitably thin them out, they become more solitary birds.  I have been lucky enough to find a couple of broods this year.  Rowdy and I hunted one of them today.

Burnett County’s geology is almost completely driven by the thick glaciation that covered it roughly 10,000 years ago.  As the ice moves, it grinds the ground into sand and then piles the sand interesting ways.  The land I hunt is basically tree covered sandy ice dunes that drop down into sandy, peaty marshes in the low areas between the huge piles. 

The cover we worked today is one of those.  The low part of the bluff transitions smoothly from a dry sandy crest down into darky and loamy soil with lots of decade old “Popples”.  This is prime grouse habitat.  For that matter, Woodcock cover too....

I like to park the truck up at the top of the crest and there is a nice little logging two track trail that leads down the hill to the cover.  There are popple stands on either side, but normally, I don’t see birds that high up the hill.  I have learned to make Rowdy hold in the truck cab while I get all kitted up.  Once I have gun loaded and have done the last-minute check, I let him out.  He’s always really fired up by then.  Rowdy works the cover hard and I stay on the two track where I have room to shoot. 

We hadn’t walked 20 yards down the hill when I heard the unmistakable sound of a grouse flush.  Whrrrr!  I never saw the bird.  Rowdy immediately got all birdy and started beating around where the bird had jumped up.  I’m pretty dejected because I think this hunt is over before it’s even started as that bird was gone and we'd never find it out in the popple stand.

But, wait!  Brood!.... so I glue onto Rowdy and watch him….and he’s acting like he thinks there IS another bird. 

I have mentioned on this blog before that when I’m wing shooting well, it’s at the unconscious level.  I don’t remember where the gun is, I just remember focusing on the bird, the situation and whether it’s safe to shoot. 

Suddenly, near where Rowdy is, there is a lot of whirring, a flurry of gray feathers and at least two birds - maybe three - all get up out of a woodpile and fly directly away from Rowdy and I out through the Popple stand.  I have no shot.  Before I have a chance to get even more dejected, a last bird jumps up out of the left side of the woodpile and flies from my right center to my left.  I tracked it unconsciously and shoot hitting the bird solidly and it falls to the forest floor dead.  The first grouse of the year!  A real sense of satisfaction washes over me.    

Rowdy has taken off deep into the popple stand chasing the birds that got away.  A actual shot at a bird  always fires him up.  He did not see me hit that last bird.

I go through my post shot habit pattern, safe up the gun, put another shell in the mag and begin thinking on what I’m going to do now.  The bird is only about 25 yards away from me and I could easily just stumble through the brush and pick it up.  But I don’t really hunt for the meat, I hunt with Rowdy because it is really rewarding to be working with a dog that I trained from a 7-week-old puppy.  As they say, it’s the journey not the destination.  It’s a huge part of the deal for him to complete the retrieve and deliver the bird to hand.  It’s not often we get a chance to do this with a freshly dead grouse.  I’m certainly not giving this one up. 

So, I beep Rowdy and begin calling him back.  It takes a minute or so, but I can see he’s on the way back and he’s really excited.  Bird!  Especially when he gets a whiff of the dead bird as he nears me.  But he goes the wrong way and I make him come over and heel up. He really wants to go get a bird and is having a tough time heeling.

He doesn’t know where the bird is so I get to do a blind retrieve on a real bird for the second time in real life!  Cool!  “Rowdy!  Dead Bird.”  I line him up on the spot and send him off with a “Back”!  He goes right to the bird but at the last second turns right down the scent trail into the deeper woods.  “Sit!”  He sits and when he’s calmed a little, I send him off to the left with an “Over”.  He runs by the bird…. “Sit!”  I send him back right and as he nears the bird, “Find It!”  You can see his ears jump and his posture change when he sights the bird.  As he comes trotting back with it you can tell he's really proud of our team work.  “Good dog!’

Here’s a picture. 

 

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad/Geoff