Category: MN
Just read this article on hunting ruffies in MN this year. So much of it, while well-intentioned, is wrong. Here goes: > The good news is, counts were up 34 percent this spring in parts of northern Minnesota. Counts remained stable in southern Minnesota. This COULD mean that there’s more easy birds (young ones) early […]
First, this doesn’t seem to be an epidemic, not even a local one. Second, regardless of your feelings about trapping, trappers are good people – if sometimes odd. (This means you Dan! Lol.) But let’s face it: Any beloved hunting dog or non-hunting pet – and they are all beloved – killed by accident is […]
Well how ’bout that? Minnesota just released a draft long-term management plan for ruffies and wants your comments on it. Pretty cool considering Minnesota is one of the top grouse states in the country…meaning they want to keep it that way. Here are some things that stood out for us: Plan/Goals > Among the goals […]
Here’s a brief report to all from Tim Brandt, a fellow Serious bird hunter. Tim lives in Minnesota, is a ruffed grouse fiend and actually gets paid to hunt (!) since he’s the PR guy at Federal Premium Ammunition. (In fact, if you ever watch the Duck Commander show, you might have seen him on […]
Seems like these bird forecasts are like media coverage of the economy: self-fulfilling, and rarely good. A recent article in MN’s Star Tribune newspaper noted that: “The predicted decline in Minnesota’s pheasant population this season has caused some hunters to skip ringneck hunting. The Department of Natural Resources sold 66,747 pheasant stamps through [Oct. 17], […]
What if you were a Serious grouse hunter and had the opportunity to take a serious pheasant- and quail-chaser into the grouse woods for a virgin trip. Would you be licking your chops? Issuing warnings? Secretly laughing inside? Well, that’s what Bob St. Pierre recently did, and we got the scoop on it. Bob is […]
When we were in Minnesota last year, we heard tell of a worm-like parasite that was suspected to have been bringing down the grouse population. Never saw it ourselves – probably didn’t kill enough birds (lol) – but recently a compadre of ours sent us these photos of parasitic worms he found in his first […]
…Surprised?! Is the ruffie hunting in Minnesota off to a slow start or not? Probably depends where, when and how you’re hunting – just like it always does – plus the amount of leafy and green vegetation still there. But nonetheless reports vary. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune: > It’s way too early to call […]
Last year we did this and it was a super-popular post, so here it is again. This is a compilation of info from newspaper reports, info from Paul Fuller/Bird Dogs Afield, the Ruffed Grouse Society’s (RGS) forecast and the forecast in the autumn issue of The Upland Almanac – plus a little anecdotal info we’ve […]
Part 1 We get it. We get why everyone likes to read bird forecasts: We all want to know how good the hunting is going to be. Yep good, not bad. We want to be psyched. So there we are, stoked about the season, sitting in our rich Corinthian leather chairs (anyone remember that commercial?!), […]
The Minnesota DNR recently published some pretty interesting details about a survey it conducted of grouse hunters. There’s a lot in there and we’ll talk about more of it later, but this installment addresses why folks don’t grouse-hunt more. The Duluth News Tribune picked up on the fact that when those surveyed (2,313 hunters surveyed, […]
Dismal. That’s the word Star Tribune writer Doug Smith starts off with in a blog post about what this year’s pheasant season might look like for Minnesotans – those Minnesotans who don’t already head for points west during pheasant season, that is. Highlights (if you can call them that) of the post below: > Dismal. […]
Ruffed grouse hunting is about as exciting as watching paint dry, grass grow or – maybe a little better – making donuts. Of course that’s not true, but apparently a lot of hunters think so, especially when compared to sitting up in a dang tree all day hoping for a deer to walk by. Now […]
Lyme Disease is bad, no doubt, and ticks are just one of a few dangerous critters bird hunters have to consider in the early season (timber rattlers, etc.). But a woman in Minnesota recently died from what sounds like a horrendous viral disease – and thus, unlike Lyme Disease, apparently untreatable by antibiotics – caused […]
We’ve been getting a flurry of emails the last couple of weeks about how the ruffie population looks like it’s gone up for this season. We’ll take a look at what’s being said, and then give you our opinion. Wisconsin Highlights from this article: > According to 2011 spring drumming counts from the state’s Department […]
We read recently about two Minnesota Pheasants Forever chapters having a Long Pheasant Feather contest. Entry fee was $40 per two-person team, and prizes were awarded for first, second and third place – of course for the longest tail feather. Love it.
A while back, before the start of grouse season, we and many others read a column in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that asked why the number of ruffed grouse hunters is down. At the time we were too busy running around trying to find birds to address it. But now, even though we should be […]
Even if you followed Pheasants Forever’s recent Rooster Road Trip – in which PF staffers hunted only public land – you may have missed this great follow-up video. In it, PF’s Andrew Vavra talks about the reference books/atlases he and his pheasant-busting compadres used for finding the spots they hunted, and where to obtain said […]
Here’s the final part of the interview with Pheasants Forever’s Bob St.Pierre, Anthony Hauck and Andrew Vavra re: their rooster odyssey: driving 2,200 to hunt five states in 6 days (that’s Serious!) – aka the 2010 Rooster Road Trip.
Part 1 Who says you can’t find pheasants on public land? After Pheasants Forever’s recent Rooster Road Trip (RRT), the answer should be “nobody.” In case you missed it, the RRT was PF staffers Bob St.Pierre, Anthony Hauck and Andrew Vavra driving 2,200 miles in 6 days to hunt five states: North and South Dakota, […]
Just read this article on hunting ruffies in MN this year. So much of it, while well-intentioned, is wrong. Here goes: > The good news is, counts were up 34 percent this spring in parts of northern Minnesota. Counts remained stable in southern Minnesota. This COULD mean that there’s more easy birds (young ones) early […]
Lessons from 2012 Maine-NH Hunt
Don’t know if we’ve fully recovered yet from our not-quite-a-week of hunting Maine and New Hampshire for ruffies and woodies. We all actually bailed 2 days early, having put in 5 consecutive days instead of our usual 7. Felt like wimps about it, but hey, we were BEAT…from 5 days of the most brutal hunting […]
No Grouse Comeback in SW Penn?
Sounds like ruffed grouse will never be as much a part of the landscape of southern Pennsylvania as they once will. “Never” sounds ominous. Permanent. But that’s the conclusion of an article by Bob Frye in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Why should you care if you don’t live or hunt in PA? Reasons: > Pennsylvania is […]
Hey: All Ruffies Drum Differently!
Did you know that? Not until now…. This info won’t help us hunting, but it’s interesting – and makes sense. Here’s more, from newscientist.com: Male ruffed grouse are the first animals known to make unique non-vocal sounds. Humans and many other animals, particularly birds, can be identified by their voices. But no one had looked […]
Ran across this quote from an article about Iowa’s pheasant count: > “I haven’t even gone pheasant hunting the last couple of years because the birds just weren’t there,†said Tim Wolf, a 61-year-old bank president who lives in Waukee. YES THEY WERE! They most definitely were there. Maybe not like this… > “But I’ve […]
Top 10 Reasons To Go to Phez Fest
Pheasants/Quail Forever’s Pheasant Fest/Quail Classic is coming up soon at KC, MO (see info in right column), and just in case you’re thinking it’s too far or whatever, here are the Top 10 – really just 10 of many – reasons to go. We’re doing it Letterman-style, 10 to 1. 10. What else are you […]
Across the Pond Bird Follies, Vids
Ah the UK, the land that gave the world 17 pieces of silverware on the table, animal rights and other questionable stuff. Okay, it wasn’t all bad – that’s where our bird hunting came from too. But it’s different here…or there, depending on your perspective. Here’s some recent bird news plus some interesting vids. Katie […]
Do Congress, Tea Party Hate Pheasants?
We make it a point to try not to get suckered by political hoo-ha, so that’s not what this is about. We ran across a blog post on the Discovery-owned treehugger.com titled “Why Does Congress Hate Pheasants?” and a related one, “Do Tea Party, Heritage Foundation Oppose Hunting?” Interesting stuff, written by the same gent, […]
Quail, the most beleaguered of our beloved gamebirds, is getting a helping hand in Kansas. Or rather, a bigger helping hand. The state just announced that it’s “launching a new quail restoration initiative aimed at making a difference in declining bobwhite quail populations at a landscape level.” Here’s more: > Includes the designation of two […]
Worms and Birds: What Else Don’t We Know?
Believe we’ve talked about this at least once, but a recent Wall Street Journal article on the plight of Texas quail got us thinking about it again. Here’s the applicable stuff: …Rolling Hills Quail Research Ranch, a 4,700-acre spread an hour west of Abilene. Last month, researchers there found that the levels of parasitic worms […]
Top 10 Reasons To Go to Phez Fest
Pheasants/Quail Forever’s Pheasant Fest/Quail Classic is coming up soon at KC, MO (see info in right column), and just in case you’re thinking it’s too far or whatever, here are the Top 10 – really just 10 of many – reasons to go. We’re doing it Letterman-style, 10 to 1. 10. What else are you […]
Lone Star Outdoor news recently carried an article on a speech given by Dr. Dale Rollins of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch near Rotan, Texas. Seems that a major threat to quail, at least in the Lone Star state, may be an eyeball worm. News to us! Highlights: > Especially mysterious were the continued […]
