On Tuesday, September 10, the Game and Fisheries Committee of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives will hold a public hearing on a bill that would allow three days of Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania, and strengthen trespass laws. We encourage our members to contact your State Representative and voice your support for this bill.
[Read more…] about Voice Your Support for Sunday Hunting in Pennsylvania – RGS
On October 31, 2018, the Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society (RGS/AWS) submitted a letter in response to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Fish & Wildlife (IN DNR) Rule Ideas for the 2018 Got INput Period in support of adding ruffed grouse to the list of endangered species of birds in Indiana.
[Read more…] about The Ruffed Grouse Struggle is Real in Indiana…
We hope everyone is ready, today we’re launching the Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society (RGS/AWS) 2020 Conservation Calendar Contest. Dust off the best photos of your grouse and woodcock dogs and let’s see ’em. Everyone loves a bird dog, right?
[Read more…] about Enter To Win | Bird Dog Photo Contest
Coraopolis, Pa – The Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society (RGS/AWS), a leader in forest wildlife conservation, have hired Britney Booth of Booth Media Group as editor of the award winning Covers Magazine (Formerly Ruffed Grouse Society Magazine). She will facilitate and develop story ideas with staff and other members of the communications team in order to broadcast the conservation mission of RGS/AWS via its quarterly membership publication.
[Read more…] about Britney Booth Hired as Editor of Covers Magazine
There’s something special about that feeling you get in the grouse woods in springtime – that moment when you pause and can’t quite hear anything, but actually feel something thumping in your chest (besides your heart). Finally it becomes clear that it’s actually a grouse drumming from a hundred yards away. Drumming is done by male grouse as they beat their wings from an elevated log, stump, rock, or other platform. Contrary to what many people believe, they’re not hitting their wings against their breast – it’s actually caused by the vacuum of air left behind from their rapid wingbeats. Scientists use this behavior to conduct drumming surveys each spring.
Most hunters keep tabs on drumming surveys when they come out each summer, and get excited (or dismayed) about the results. The surveys have been used reliably for several decades. But in recent history, there seems to be somewhat of a disconnect between spring drumming counts and fall harvest numbers/observations. So what is their purpose and what can we still learn from them?
[Read more…] about What We Can Learn from Grouse Drumming Surveys
We would love for you to Join Us at Grouse Camp in Eagle River, WI September 27th -29th. Now you have a chance to do so for free by entering our active video contest.
Thanks to generous donors, winners (up to 10) will receive free entry to Grouse Camp 2019 which includes event registration and some meals ($150 value). This does not include lodging.
[Read more…] about Video Contest | Join Us at Grouse Camp
(New member will receive a coupon code to activate a 12-month subscription to onX Hunt. The code can be used at any time to activate a new subscription.)
onX Hunt is the world’s most comprehensive digital mapping system for hunters. onX Hunt combines land ownership information, with topography, satellite imagery, weather, timber harvest data, game bird management info and much more!
Now is your chance to try onX Hunt free for a full year, when you sign up as an RGS | AWS member. If you’re anything like the rest of us, once you hunt with onX, you’ll wonder how you ever hunted without it.
We were wrapping up the afternoon, myself and hunting partner, also Mike, winding our way through likely cover on our rough course back to the truck. We each had a handful of chances at birds, my partner had brought one to hand. I was new to this, well, not new to woodcock, but new to southern, migratory woodcock.
[Read more…] about Woodcock | A Gateway to the Uplands
The Wisconsin Ruffed Grouse Management Planning Committee has finished its first ruffed grouse management plan draft. This plan will serve as a tool for managing ruffed grouse in Wisconsin and includes information on ruffed grouse ecology, management history, and proposes future management goals for ruffed grouse in Wisconsin.
[Read more…] about Public Comment | Wisconsin Grouse Season
