There’s one thing extremely peaceable about searching in early winter. The woods are calm and quiet. Contemporary, clear snow blankets the bottom. As searching winds down for the 12 months, this distinctive season presents an opportunity for one final journey: searching late-season grouse in a winter wonderland. With no stress to fill a tag, this expertise is nearly at all times price having, and whereas late-season grouse could be a variety of work, it’s additionally rewarding and satisfying. I discover getting one fowl within the powder is extra memorable and thrilling than a restrict of 5 in early October.
As soon as the snow flies, grouse habits and behaviours change, making discovering them a bit tougher. Beneficiant seasons, nevertheless, present loads of alternative to hunt grouse within the snow and lengthen your searching season.
Snow habits
Grouse behaviour modifications as snow accumulates. Not can hunters drive or stroll bush roads and look forward to finding birds fortunately choosing gravel and consuming greens alongside the sting of a street or path. Snow cowl forces grouse to maneuver elsewhere for meals. They stroll round much less and fly extra usually from roost to feeding areas. They nonetheless stroll quick distances, however roost close to a meals supply. Vitality conservation is essential, so they like meals and canopy shut collectively. Grouse can usually be seen roosting in timber, puffed as much as assist them keep heat, or consuming buds excessive in deciduous timber like birch and aspen.
You’ll nonetheless discover them slowly choosing their approach alongside street edges at instances, however these areas don’t have the identical draw they did within the fall. As soon as the snow is deep sufficient to totally cowl roads, these areas lose their attraction.
My dad, retired wildlife biologist Ted Armstrong — who ignited my ardour for the outside — shared perception from his profession alongside a lifetime of fowl watching and searching.
“Budding” behaviour will increase significantly, significantly for ruffed grouse, as winter approaches, he stated. Usually, grouse are much less lively and feed much less often, spending extra time hunkered down avoiding predators and decreasing publicity to the chilly. They turn into extra environment friendly, often consuming a couple of times a day near first and final gentle for shorter intervals of time.
“Among the best locations to seek out grouse when the snow has come, is when they’re feeding on the buds of deciduous timber,” Armstrong Sr. stated. “Hunters need to fully change their search picture and begin trying up excessive for grouse.”
With no leaves on branches, grouse could be straightforward to identify. They like combined deciduous and coniferous forests, providing each cowl and feed. Though they might be seen feeding in youthful deciduous timber, they’re most frequently discovered across the higher cowl of mature forest. Finest spots are in wooded areas alongside creeks, rivers, and the sides of cutovers.
Meals sources
Requested about the popular winter meals sources of grouse, Armstrong Sr. stated they may eat quite a lot of totally different buds and catkins, together with aspen (poplar), beaked hazelnut, birch, and willow. Discovering areas with these combined in with or near heavier cowl would point out an excellent grouse-hunting space.
Grouse weapons
Firearm selection for this type of journey in the end comes down to private choice. For extra, two principal choices are a rimfire (like a .22 or .17 HMR) or shotgun. For one of these hunt, mobility is essential.
Whereas it will work, toting round your normal pump-action 12-gauge can turn into a bit cumbersome, and pointless. One thing lighter like a 20 or 28 gauge, or a .410, are good choices. The 28-gauge shotgun has turn into my grouse go-to. It’s the proper mixture of portability, energy, and payload. Sitting between a 20 gauge and .410, it takes one of the best options of every and combines them in an ideal little grouse gun.
For rimfires, a typical .22 is most typical, although the .17 HMR is gaining in reputation for small sport searching, and with good purpose. It’s (principally) lethal correct, and whereas costlier to shoot, is basically a souped-up .22 spherical. That makes it an ideal small sport and target-shooting possibility.
There are a couple of different issues when choosing a gun. Contemplating that you could be be capturing birds up in timber, and with rimfire rounds with the ability to journey a mile or extra, you want to contemplate what’s past your goal. In distant wilderness areas, this will not be as a lot of a priority, however it’s one thing that you should contemplate when capturing a spherical like this up within the air, and a shotgun is usually the safer possibility.
As one of these searching typically includes a variety of strolling, it’s key that you just discover a firearm that you may comfortably carry for lengthy intervals of time, by way of rugged terrain.
Capturing precisely is likewise essential.
Grouse indicators
One other bonus of searching in snow is the power to see grouse tracks. Marks and different signal usually inform the place they’ve been travelling, and it provides you an thought the place to pay attention your efforts. You’ll usually discover small piles of grouse droppings on the base of a tree, tracks within the snow, and if the snow is deep sufficient, you might also discover indicators of the place they’ve made their snow dens. These are all indicators that grouse are close by, and within the winter they often don’t stray far.
Shelter within the snow
A great winter for grouse is one with loads of gentle fluffy snow. In years with minimal snow, or snow with a heavy crust, they might wrestle to seek out shelter. As soon as there may be sufficient snow, grouse will really search shelter beneath, making the most of its insulating properties. They may fly down, primarily dive-bombing and burrowing to create their very own little snow burrow. This protects them from predators and retains them out of the weather.
You may usually see indicators of this by way of the telltale gap in deep snow, with wing prints on the edge, and sometimes with grouse tracks main away or close by. Although uncommon, it’s possible you’ll even encounter a startled grouse rising from their hidden snow den, exploding from the snow in a flurry of feathers as they make their exit. If there isn’t ample snow, they may search shelter in clumps of heavy conifers, someplace to assist hold them shielded from parts and predators, nevertheless it isn’t as superb as a snow burrow.
Constructed for winter
Grouse are constructed for winter and have some fascinating diversifications to outlive on this difficult local weather. They’ve distinctive constructions on their toes, Armstrong Sr. stated. “Their toes adapt and develop small projections on the perimeters to create a web-like impact, permitting them to stroll on the snow.” Grouse develop further feathers for elevated insulation and make use of survival methods just like the snow burrow and puffing as much as keep heat.
Seasons
Throughout Ontario, many grouse seasons are open till December 31. Years in the past, the season in most northern WMUs was prolonged to Dec. 31 from Dec. 15, permitting for a number of extra weeks of grouse-hunting alternatives after the shut of many huge sport seasons on Dec. 15. In among the extra northern WMUs, the seasons are notably longer and lengthen to March thirty first (WMUs 1-4, 16-18, 24-27). This permits for a drastically prolonged season, and fantastic alternatives to hunt grouse in a completely totally different surroundings.
Three grouse recipes
Also known as partridge, there are three principal species of grouse present in Ontario.
Ruffed grouse are typically most well-liked by most hunters as desk fare, and are most quite a few all through the province. Spruce grouse could be fairly widespread in some areas and are typically the least cautious of all of the grouse species, making them straightforward to sneak up on. On the subject of desk fare, nevertheless, they’re usually final on most hunters’ lists. Sharptailed grouse are positioned in additional northern WMUs and are not often encountered by hunters. They’re a really totally different and difficult fowl to hunt.
For more information on these three birds, flip to web page 22 of our Nov.-Dec. 2022 problem.
Initially printed within the Nov.-Dec. 2022 problem of Ontario OUT of DOORS
