I took a three-day jaunt two weeks ago with a friend across some newly acquired state land in New York's Adirondacks, up near the high peak region. We covered about 25 miles and flushed a dozen singles and six broods. While it was good to see the broods which I take as an indication of favorable nesting conditions, each brood had only three, four or five young as best as we could tell.
Around my usual Adirondack haunts there seems to have been good breeding success. Grayson and I made an 8 mile loop over logging roads in one of my best areas and found five broods and a half a dozen singles. Over the past 5 years this loop was a bust except for an occasional single or two.
So things are looking up compared to the previous few years. We are currently in a two-month hot and dry spell with the word "drought" being tossed about by the weather folks. Not sure what effect this may have, if any, come October.
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