2017 Grouse Reports

Are you guys seeing birds? Think numbers are up like they say?

I got in the woods for about an hour last week when I went to blow lines on our camper. I shot one woodcock and missed on a grouse. I was actually impressed with that action for the limited time.

I’ve been out north of the Duluth area about 10 times so far this year. On average, I’m seeing about 2-3 birds per mile walked which is a little better than last year. The consensus from the first hand reports I’ve been receiving is the bird numbers are indeed up, but not up as much as the drumming reports suggested.

Last Friday – Walk 4 miles through the woods and see nothing, then within 20 yards of my brand new truck one jumps and flies between me and the vehicle…Needless to say I did not take a shot.

Saturday afternoon – Walking behind my house to hang a tree stand and basically step on one hiding from the drizzle…based on the flight pattern it took, it knew I didnt have a gun and was harmless (although I am pretty harmless with a gun as well)

To sum it up; seeing birds, but I suck at hunting them.

This was all in Polk County, WI

In the areas I have hunted in NW Wi we have seen fewer than last year. In many of my spots I have had zero flushes and that has never happened before. All it takes is the right spot I guess. I have been hunting many new spots and have found some birds but its still been very tough. I will not make it to Mn this year and I’ve always found the best grouse hunting there.

One of the reports I read indicated that even though drumming counts were up the spring nesting conditions were marginal this spring. I think a lot of locales had cool, wet weather. Because if this it may not have translated into better fall hunting numbers.

I have been out a few times. Grouse numbers seem to be a bit down from last year. Last Sunday (Oct 22) we did get some flushes between 5 of us and a dog. I don’t know how many were multiple flushes of the same bird but we did tally 15 woodcock flushes and 16 grouse flushes for a couple hours of hunting.

I’ve also been seeing or hearing them from bow stands. There always seems to be one or two around our stand placements.

I was up near Isabella on opening weekend and then the third weekend for four days and it was terrible. Last year during the same period in the same areas I saw probably 10x more birds.

Around McGregor it seems to be way down. The property I hunt in motley for deer is not exactly great grouse woods but this year is the most I have saw in the 10 years they have owned it.

I hunted with my Dad around the Deer River area and Chippewa National Forest this past weekend. Blanket of snow frosted all the trees. We saw 3 grouse for 1.5 days hunting. Thinking the grouse were hunkered down and hiding. Kind of disappointing not at least seeing more, but still a good time to be out and very pretty in the woods.