fbpx

RGS

Healthy Forests, Abundant Wildlife, Conservation Ethic

You are here: Home / Archives for Grouse Ecology

Grouse Ecology

Earliest Test Results of West Nile Virus Sampling in Upper Great Lakes Ruffed Grouse Now Available – RGS

by

ruffed grouse
Photo Credit | Steve Oehlenschlager
  • Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan Departments of Natural Resources recently announced results of the first year of coordinated West Nile Virus (WNV) sampling efforts for ruffed grouse in their state
  • Rates of WNV antibodies in ruffed grouse varied from around 13 percent in Minnesota and Michigan, and 29 percent in Wisconsin
  • Ruffed Grouse Society continues to emphasize habitat management as the “solution” for WNV, and aid in coordinating surveillance efforts in all 3 states

October 22, 2019
For Immediate Release

Coraopolis, Pa. – The Departments of Natural Resources in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan recently announced results of West Nile Virus (WNV) testing of hunter submitted samples from the 2018 hunting seasons.

Results are the first in a three-year study conducted through a partnership among the Ruffed Grouse Society (RGS) and each state agency. The coordinated effort was planned to better understand ruffed grouse exposure to WNV in the region. Results already demonstrate that some grouse survive exposure to WNV and are not sick when harvested in the fall.

[Read more…] about Earliest Test Results of West Nile Virus Sampling in Upper Great Lakes Ruffed Grouse Now Available – RGS

What We Can Learn from Grouse Drumming Surveys

by

ruffed grouse drumming - Steve Oehlenschlager
Photo Credit | Steve Oehlenschlager

What exactly does a drumming survey tell us…or not tell us?

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

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE: What are “Healthy Forests”?

by

Pres Msg

            “I have read many definitions of what is a conservationist, and written not a few myself, but I suspect that the best one is written not with a pen, but with an axe. It is a matter of what a man thinks about while chopping, or while deciding what to chop. A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke he is writing his signature on the face of his land.”

[Read more…] about PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE: What are “Healthy Forests”?

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – Stay Focused on Habitat

by

RGS Mag Pres Msg Fall 2017

When I hunt grouse and woodcock next fall, I want to better clear my mind of all things occupying my thoughts . . .  I want to stay focused on what I’m doing . . . I want to stay focused on hunting, and when I do, I pick up little cues from the surrounding habitat, I pay closer attention to the dog work, I react to flushes better and shoot straighter, and I’m quite sure you’ve made a similar observation. Staying focused helps us enjoy all the hunt has to offer and gives us a much more fulfilling and satisfying hunting experience regardless of whether we bring back any birds at the end of the day.

[Read more…] about PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – Stay Focused on Habitat

PUBLIC LANDS, ACCESS & THINKING LONG TERM

by

By Meadow Kouffeld, RGS & AWS Regional Wildlife Biologist

Despite the current negative state and federal climate toward public land holding, RGS and partners are working with government agencies to reverse this trend.

DSC_9790 (848x1280)
RGS member Tracy Lee hunts with her English setter puppy on public land during the RGS National Grouse and Woodcock Hunt near Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

Coming from the West, I appreciate public land. The nature of our western big game requires that large tracts of land are available to support populations substantial enough for hunters to pursue. Huntable numbers of mule deer, blacktails, bighorn sheep, moose, caribou, mountain goats and elk don’t occupy 40-acre stands of trees in seas of corn. Very few people have the financial wherewithal to own thousands of western acres, however America’s greatness comes from our ability to enjoy the great outdoors, hunting and fishing notwithstanding personal wealth.

[Read more…] about PUBLIC LANDS, ACCESS & THINKING LONG TERM

THEY SAID IT! . . . Best Quotes from the Spring RGS Magazine

by

THEY SAID IT! . . . Best Quotes from the Spring RGS Magazine

By Matt Soberg

Are you an upland hunter?  Bird dog owner? Shotgun lover?

Have you become afflicted by the grouse and woodcock hunting addiction? Do you care about the future of our sporting traditions?

If you answer “yes” to any of the above, the Ruffed Grouse Society magazine is a must see – a one stop shop for everything grouse and woodcock hunting and forest habitat conservation – hunting tips, bird dog info, gun reviews, book reviews, cooking recipes, classic hunting stories, habitat management information . . . the list goes on and on.

[Read more…] about THEY SAID IT! . . . Best Quotes from the Spring RGS Magazine

What is it like to watch a drummer?

by

CONNECTING THE DOTS . . . From Habitat to Hunting

By Matt Soberg, RGS & AWS Editor & Director of Communications

This is what it’s like to watch a spring drummer connect the dots from habitat to hunting . . .

2 (1024x728)

I lifted my Kromer above my left ear thinking I had heard a faint rustle of leaves down the hill from my strategically placed location. I set my Thermos cup of coffee onto the ground’s newly-green, late-April shoots and leaned my head forward toward one of the opened blind windows for a better vantage point. Sure enough, my ears were right . . . the pitter-patter of small feet traipsing across the forest floor was getting closer . . . and louder . . . and closer.

[Read more…] about What is it like to watch a drummer?

Driftless Young Forest Symposium

by

Today, the Ruffed Grouse Society brought together agency professionals from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois to focus on landscape-scale goals to enhance future young forest habitat in the Driftless Region.

IMG_3144 (1024x507)

Today (August 16, 2016) the Ruffed Grouse Society launched the Driftless Young Forest Symposium in La Crosse, Wisconsin to bring together agency professionals from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois to focus on landscape-scale goals to enhance young forest habitat in the Driftless Region. Symposium goals include providing a clear understanding of the area forest use trends and wildlife impacts, to recognize challenges of forest management in this region and to identify and embrace opportunities for potential landscape-scale benefits to young forest habitat in the future.

[Read more…] about Driftless Young Forest Symposium

RGS Responds to Anti-Forest Management Message

by

Earlier this spring, the Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society determined at a strategic planning meeting that public resistance to scientifically sound habitat management practices was one of the top three significant and long-term impediments to the future of healthy forest habitat benefiting not only ruffed grouse and American woodcock but a wide array of forest wildlife.

IMG_2592 (2) (1024x537)
[Read more…] about RGS Responds to Anti-Forest Management Message

Book Review – A Grouse Hunter’s Almanac

by

A GROUSE HUNTER’S ALMANAC

The Other Kind of Hunting

By Mark Parman

Published 2010 – University of Wisconsin Press

Mark Parman has been a longtime contributor of classic grouse and woodcock hunting stories to the Ruffed Grouse Society magazine. A favorite Parman articles is “What He Carried”, which was published in the fall 2013 issue and features an introspective story about the possessions and superstitions that make grouse and woodcock hunters a unique group. The story starts with, “Each possession (of a grouse hunter) brings with it reminders of special days gone by.” If you are a grouse hunter, you understand this inexplicable phenomenon. The story talks about the symbols of grouse hunting that captivate us all throughout the year. He writes, “In late winter, he notes a grouse feather floating across the wood floor of his living room or kitchen, escapees from his gamebag, or he finds one stuck to the wet nose of his dog. He doesn’t mind the feathers. He picks one up, twirls the rachis in his fingers and is carried back to October.” Has this happened to any of you during bitter cold January? I suspect it has.

[Read more…] about Book Review – A Grouse Hunter’s Almanac