Ruffed grouse

[loganwayne]

I’m kinda surprised to read this. My ruffed grouse hunting was always in western Pennsylvania so I really don’t follow any discussions out of that region

Any sense as to why or how bad the decline is

I'm in Western NC on Tennessee line so hunt both states. Id say habit loss is the biggest one. Most of our forest are predominantly poplar forest now, not alot of food for any animals. Predators are through the roof raccoons are at an all-time high number since no one hunts or traps them now. I think west nile has also affected them. I also think that turkeys are out competing them as well, areas i use to find birds in now have turkeys and birds are hard to find.

the asheville hippies fight any logging or burning hard. i can go find birds in old cuts and burns and get into 5-6 birds a day in some areas still but they are far and few between and i try not to hunt them again.

 

[Macintosh]

Ruffies=the whitest of white meat. Locally they are called partridge. The joke is that people who shoot them out their truck window by the side of road while they’re picking grit call them partridge…while people with dogs who wouldnt think of shooting one that wasnt on the wing call them ruffed grouse. Couple years ago I volunteered to help re-deck a bridge in one of the prime public grouse hunting areas around here on the opening weekend. I talked to dozens of vehicles as they drove up and waited to get over the bridge…it was truly remarkable how many trucks had an uncased shotgun at the ready between the passengers legs.
For several decades they were almost all I hunted, I always liked to say that big game hunting was like watching paint dry. Ive run into them a bunch of times in the rockies and they act like a completely different bird. Around me, once october rolls around, they’ll flush 50 yards ahead of you at the slightest noise sometimes, and rarely give you that watery-sounding clucking warning right before they fly. Seems their ability to
wait just until you are behind a tree to flush is uncanny. The past decade I saw a drastic decline in numbers in the lower elevation areas near me, and participated in a study out f&w dept cooperated on with a number of other state agencies to test for west nile in grouse. My understanding is that study is still ongoing. But I know the mid and southern appalachians have seen a huge decline in numbers. The last few years I think Ive seen a small resurgence at low elevation, but I still dont bother to hunt there, the numbers are all in the higher hills and plateaus around here.