SBH Hunt Report: Maine Grouse, Day 3
Searching via satellite for birdy areas.
On the night of day 2, we spent a bunch of time on Google Earth looking for grousy covers. We’d already done that pre-trip, but the areas we were finding weren’t right – for how we were hunting, the amount of vegetation and the species mix: The areas we found were holding only woodcock rather than the grouse and woodcock mix we were expecting.
On day 3, we wanted to target grouse only.
Well, at least we knew we were in a good area....
On the way to our first spot – which we eventually found we couldn’t get to – we saw a group of six (6!) forest chickens pecking the side of a hump by a road. We immediately disembarked and hunted them up.
It was grouse madness, but they were running like turkeys and we managed only one decent flush out of the bunch. It provided Brendan an excellent shot, but naturally flushed right in front of the rental car. Brendan was mighty temped, but ultimately decided that “normal wear and tear” did not include multiple pellet strikes.
We managed to reflush another of that group, and Jay missed an easy shot. Apparently finding no time to hit the sporting clays course this summer wasn’t wise….
The rest of the day was largely uneventful. We found one dead grouse at a decent cover we’d hunted before, and we hunted another decent cover at the end of the day in rain and some wind. Naturally the wind made the grouse skittish as heck. We flushed three, including one out of an aspen, but that was it.
Nice cover, especially for woodies, but way too dense (click to see way bigger). Didn't hunt it.
Day 3 Count
We ended up with those 9 birds flushed, none on the ground, and no woodcock flushes. Seemed like a crappy day but that first group of birds was getting us to a semi-productive theory on how we had to hunt. That said, on the next 2 days we unfortunately were seduced by the promise of new areas.
Rained at the end of the day....
Tomorrow: Day 4 Hunt Report
Category: 2010-11 reports, Hunt reports, ME, Ruffed Grouse, SBH, Woodcock
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