grouse numbers and drumming

[wdgold]

Musky Buck,

i wish my dad and grandfather would've taken photos of all the birds in the late 70's-early90's. back in those days, there were no 10 yr cylces for them. they tell me they could walk down any given dirt road, and a couple birds would be there (they even use to eat the clover in our yard). then again, the land we hunt has historically been managed very well, and its almost all perfect partridge territory. nowadays, they don't log as much as they use to (but in the areas they do ), there's more hunters, and the 10 year cycles are in affect. its just nice to see this many birds again. i hope it last a few years

I will have to disagree on your no 10 yr. cycle theory years ago. I have been hunting grouse since the late 70's and my dad and grandpa since the 50's. We hunted every year in those day's and there was definitely a noticable cycle in the numbers of birds. We hunted the same areas every year and some years you might bag a limit of birds in one day and other years you might be lucky to see a limit in a whole weekend of hunting. I have noticed the peak years now days are down compared to peak periods years ago.