Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Alaska Grouse Population

Grouse numbers are not just down but severely down. A dog club recently helped F&G do a brood count. With several high-test dogs hunting prime areas, NO grouse were found.

Some of the ag parcels have grown up to the point they would need to be cleared again. Some of the CRP ground was converted to pasture but now some is going back into CRP.....it's a mix.

The spring was late and wet so nesting success was poor also.

I get roughly a third to half my shotgunned spruce grouse on the wing and rest on the ground or in a tree if I see them land. I am unafraid to sluice them if that is the opportunity I have.

T, I have heard the spruce grouse were not the best table fare. True? How about hares, are they not just snowshoe rabbits. Pretty strong from what I have heard. But I have not eaten either.

How many clutches does a grouse hen typically have per year....???

Most often only one...I think.

Maybe if they lose a brood early they may try to nest again.

Spruce grouse are dark meated and not the best eating but they’re not sage grouse level dark either.

There are 2 types of hares up here: snowshoes and Alaskan hares. The snowshoe hares are mild tasting. Nothing special and taste just like the snowshoe hares I have eaten from the lower 48. I have not tried the Alaskan hare nor have I heard from anyone whom has.

I don't know, but I have encounters with hens with a dozen tiny chicks from mid-May through early August.

Accurate.

Thanks T!!!

Of course that requires a couple of live grouse to start with...I've not seen a single one in Talkeetna all summer long. And one fox where normally they hang all over town...

Exactly! With grouse numbers this low and another winter to face before mating, I sure don't see a rapid improvement. I'm sure you've received similar information from Delta.

Several years ago hunting a favorite area for grouse I encountered a fellow hunting the same area. In his broken Hmong English he asked if we’d seen any “ptarmigan”, and showed us his take in the back of his truck. He had nine ruffed grouse from an area where the limit was two. I pointed out they were ruffed grouse and the limit was two. He became argumentative insisting they were ptarmigan.

I declined to argue the point any further and made a not of his plate number and vehicle description. I called fish and game and was met with a ho hum response so I doubt anything was done about it. Another hunter whom I was acquainted with and lived in that area said he saw the same guy out there frequently.

Was there a while back to pickup from Cody plus my normal spring. Saw nothing either time. Reports weekly from there report about the same. Everything took a huge hit. How could it not. Just nature. Be nice to just lay off the game a few years to let it bounce.

Glad to hear the cranes are around. They are on my bucket list eventually. Eventually I'll be in Delta at the house at the right time to hunt them I hope.

Maybe I'll see ya in October when I'm back around a bit.

I am seeing roughly as many critters as I have the last few years and probably more ptarmigan. I jumped several clutches of young birds while sheep hunting yesterday. Whitetailed up higher and Willow a bit lower in the alders.

They all looked healthy enough to me. I haven’t spent anytime looking for ruffed or sharptail though the spruce hatch around Fairbanks looks ‘normal’ to me. Same with Sheep in the Alaska range.

Coming off 12-mile Summit on the Steese from our 4 day 40-mile caribou hunt (no caribou seen!), I saw a melanistic ptarmigan. Jet black. Way cool- not something I've ever seen before. It better change color before the snow comes!

Slowing to get a pic, the bird hustled back into the brush, so no pic. Am assuming it was a ptarmigan as we were well above timberline, with only road-side brush, so almost certainly not a spruce grouse.

No, it was not a raven!

We got back to Sterling at midnight last night. Slight change (hijack? ) of topic.

From what we saw (or didn't!), talked to others, including troopers, gun shots heard, I'd be surprised if the Steese accounted for more than 30 or so caribou those first 4 days.

I think F&G played the public on their 40-mile hotline. I'll do a separate thread.

Although I don't and won't hunt the Steese, I checked the hotline daily and the report seemed valid at all times and coincided with pilot reports and tracking collars.

There is almost always an area thats going to be normal so to speak. Around Delta so far its far from normal.

Any place that warmed and got layers of ice built up is death IMHO. You can't get to food. You can get iced in from above in a den, like a fox, and not be able to dig up or down or out basically. Did I mention the food issue?

I"m certainly super glad things appear normal around Fairbanks. As bad as the fishing is in Talkeetna this year some place has to have a positive spin.

Blueberry,s are ripe took a break from trout fishing 1/2 hr pick 5 ft from shore! No grouse were seen but wasn't looking hard enough!

True, but the freezing rain around Christmas and a couple other times this winter that everyone is talking about happened around Fairbanks too, as well as elsewhere. I was after sheep not terribly far from Delta (for AK standards) and the ptarmigan numbers looked good to me. I didn't see any spruce there but also wasn't in the timber where they're generally found.

There were lots of surveys for sharptail and ruffed grouse this spring/summer near Delta and they all reported little to no birds. I am not doubting those survey results but am thinking that maybe the birds were just late to do their thing this year, so maybe the surveys just `missed` them, or those two species for whatever reason are more sensitive to the specific conditions we had? I dunno....

Talk almost daily to our friend in Delta. Retired. Gets out a few times a week into the woods on the wheeler. 30 plus mile loops. Reports a severe hit on wildlife period. I'm like you, dunno. But I don't doubt what he doesn't see.