Grouse were did they go?

I live here in notheast Iowa and have been in the woods for 30 years hunting. When I left for the Army in 1991 our grouse population was still fairly strong.I got out in 95 and noticed a strong decline in the population.My farther wouldnt even hunt them anymore. Still today you hardly here one druming, and i spend countless hours in the woods.Can anyone tell me what happend to our grouse population and why??

Turkeys can out compete with grouse and are much bigger and more efficent feeders. Here in western Wisconsin grouse are almost an endangered species.

I too, remember in the 90’s we could actually flush enough birds to hunt them. Now, if you see one or two a year, thats alot.

Well the grouse sure haven’t moved to Northern MN where I used to hunt. I’ve gotten one bird in the last five years or so. We were up fishing a few weekends ago and didn’t see any or hear any drumming. They’re going the way of the Dodo

I am of the opinion that Grouse, Woodcock and Quail are all down in numbers. Overall bird numbers other than Ditch Parrots in North Dakota and Turkeys everywhere have been in decline at an exponentially growing rate since I was introduced to hunting 25 years ago.

It could be all these tree huggers are onto something with there pollution scare and the global warming stuff, I guess I just dont know what to think.

I have a couple friends who hunt primarily in the Stevens Point area of Wisconsin. They bagged 130 grouse each last year. They have averaged 100+ birds for as long as I have known them, they keep the fans as evidence.

They both hunted four to six days a week all thru the season. One told me it was as hard as they have ever worked to get that many birds.

I spent around $1200+ in gas covering a triangular area from Manitowoc Wi to Black Duck MN south to Winona MN looking for birds and it was really hit or miss.

The woodcock were way way down in my opinion, not that I care that much, they taste like mud.

On thing I noticed was all the birds I shot were 2nd season or older. None of them were as large as the birds I used to shoot when my old man used to take me out 20 years ago down by Redwing MN. What that means I have no clue.

I laughed last week when in the Pioneer Press the Wisconsin’s DNR said the drumming numbers are up again this year and it should be such a good year that you will need to buy two licenses to justify all the birds that are going to be jumping into the back of you’re vest this fall.

Of course the Minnesota DNR is behind Wisconsin in getting their drum count report out… I think they wanted to double check the counts were really 2x that of Wisconsin’s historic all time best numbers – ’cause that’s almost too good to be true!