Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Maine grouse?

Is anyone seeing many? They are more scarce than I’ve ever experienced around our camp south of Millinocket. We saw a few in the road around Telos a few weeks ago but nothing here.

Put up 3 in the western mountains today.

Headed up to Zone 1 on Wednesday for 3 days

I just got back from Jackman, was rainy and overcast. Put up 4 bird's all out of tree's missed the only shot I had. Saw 1 road bird but he was a runner and I never got to shoot at him. I walked a fair amount of ground and I don't think there is a lot of bird's. Certainly not like year's past.

They will be everywhere, when the snow flies and a centerfire rifle is in my hands.
Like every year.

Just back from our trip. 5 guys killed 23 in 3 days. They were few and far between. Zones 2 and 5. I live in 6 and saw very few all summer

I talked to a guy at the rest area in Medway yesterday . His party had been up in the Telos area for 9 days and they saw 5.

9 days and 5 birds is quite surprisingly awful. Wow.

23 in 3 days is probably the best I've heard yet from anyone.

I'll bring my flush counter with me again this year. We've had 4 straight years of 70+, I know we won't get that this year. Still looking forward to it like a kid on Christmas however!

If you can believe the tracker feature on OnX, I averaged over 13 miles a day on foot. That is a lot of country for a few birds.

Were you hunting with dogs? Any woodcock?

Packing my stuff up now

Boys just came back from 8. Two days, two birds shot over their dogs.
Weak showing this year.

No dogs just a lot of walking.

I saw 2 woodcock.

Zone 3, Very wet spring. I didn"t see any birds all summer. Flushed one today. I am not hopeful for this season.

Yeah zone 3 has been pretty bad. Been going most nights after work and seeing nothing. Same with the northern part of 6.

I finally saw a few two days ago in the JoMary area. One single that I missed and three together that escaped unharmed. The good news is that our little Springer Spaniel is very eager to find game and seems to be getting less nervous about loud noises.

Roxanne Quimby should start planting oak and apple trees in all the clear cut land she has purchased. She won't let you hunt on her land, but at least there will be habitat and a food source for future populations of deer and grouse ("pahtridge").

We put up 35 grouse and 16 woodcock in 3 days not running too hard. About 1/3 of what we normally do on grouse. A lot of woodcock around this year, much more than normal for the area we hunt

Too wet in June and killed the clutch.

So one week left. How was your season?

I did not shoot a single grouse this year. First skunked season ever.

Ended up killing 21. Over all a much better season than anticipated. I found a couple of good pockets and stayed with it.

That said I’ve been doing a good bit of shed hunting and have yet to see a bird.

2023 was a wet year for Maine grouse and they are cyclical.