Work, home/cabin upkeep, finances, family, and weather have played a negative role in my hunting this year. Hopefully, things change somewhat for next.
Upland hunting has been mixed, never found any sharptails (though they are few and scattered in the area) and the woodcock disappeared after the snow and cooler temps a couple weeks ago. For whatever reason, I've seen only a handful of woodcock since Oct 21. A buddy only 20 miles away was finding them up to season's close last weekend.
Ruffed grouse has been a bright spot, where a typical walk would find 3 grouse, the same walk has one contacting double that number and a couple of times tripling it. That is surprising considering the amount of rain we got. Timing must have been right and the rain began after the hatch and the chicks dumped their down for real feathers.
Pheasants will be more in play in a couple of weeks once the firearms deer season ends. The crops are being harvested now, soy beans are a month to 6 weeks late and corn has just begun. The great point is it's been cold and the swamps are freezing quickly. That will allow me to get into areas with too deep of water to walk much earlier than normal. I have a handful of roosters in the freezer already but pheasants do not really begin until late November for me.
