Birding up at Lake of the Woods

[Harmonica Bear]

Heading up to the deer shack. Will be hunting there and Beltrami Island STF. Anybody know how the folage is up there? Still a lot of leaves on the trees?

[Matt Breuer]

I have a cabin near Wannaska, very close to the entrance into Beltrami Island. I'm headed up there tomorrow, and can let you know when I return. I always hunt BISF for some ruffs when I'm up that way...

Side note: Opener was horrid up there. Worst opener I've had for ruffs around BISF and the Wannaska/Skime area ever I think.

[Crappie Killer]

It's still too early up here to see alot of birds. Lots of leaves. We haven't had a real killing frost here yet, so lot's of green. I've been out on the trails alot the past few weeks, and have seen a total of 2 grouse. At least on the west side of beltrami, I'd say the grouse season just hasn't started yet. I can't speak for the east half. Good luck though. Matt, where's your cabin? Mine's about 11 miles south of Wannaska on highway 89.

[Matt Breuer]

Crappie Killer, shoot me an e-mail... mjbreuer at charter . net

We saw more than that on our land on opener, but usually we see at least double digits.

[Matt Breuer]

Was up working the dogs on Sat. and Sun. morning. We were all so tired by 2pm on Sat. that we packed 'er in and called it a day... We worked over private land chasing sharps and didn't work a single area for ruffs while I was up, however I did take note of the folliage, which is still VERY thick compared to usual. I have my logs telling me that the first two weeks of Oct. are always the best for leaves falling and grouse falling behind them.... This year we're behind I'd say!

On a good note, the thicker brush and heavy winds helped hold enough sharps to allow for some shooting!

[bjl]

was up fishing/grouse hunting sept. 19-21, ended up seeing/hearing a dozen forest pheasants, on some nice trails a couple miles south of baudette. Only hunted mornings then I wet a line, ended up getting one young one, however, did see some nice ones from a distance (crossing the trail 75+ yards away). looked promising and was good to get the young dog on some grouse scent...he's gonna be really intoxicated once he gets on some rooties this weekend

[Harmonica Bear]

We got back yesterday. Did most of our hunting around the shack (just south of Williams) and there were birds around, not great but not bad either. Seen plenty of woodcock, too. We hunted Beltrami Island Sunday and ran into spotty patches of good birding. Again not great, but not bad either. We hunted hard and by Sunday afternoon we and the dogs were exhausted. Then of course is when we got into a bunch of birds which made things interesting....

"The great shooting slump of 08" continued... I swear my dog is going to disown me... never in my life have I shot so bad..

The leaves were definitely still up and yes I thought well behind as well, but they were really starting to turn by the time we left yesterday afternoon. Things should be good foilage-wise shortly with couple of windy days.

Edges of alders and dogwood seemed to be the best areas at this time.

All in all a great time with plenty of oppurtunities. And as usual I wish I was still there or it wasn't so [PoorWordUsage] far away...