Snowed 6 inch's and 25 degrees here in S.E. Mass. right now. Bless 2020 and kiss the woodcock good bye for this year.

I am still up in northern minn and not doing well . We see a few birds per day and hear several more but in four days we have bagged one grouse. We did have 14 flushes in one day but the birds are very skittish.

The snow and wind have been difficult. Lots of snow , ice, swamp and downed timber. I look forward to the plains. There are times when I feel that ruffed grouse hunting is better to read about than do.

Crazy weather! I'm about 120 miles north of the Manitoba/Minnesota border and 40 miles from the Manitoba/Ontario border. The morning of the 31st the wind was blowing hard from the south and the temperature was 39F. By 2 pm it swung around 180 degrees coming from the north west at 25F, snow, wind gusts up to 50mph, with occasional white out conditions. I hope you're not in it's path.

Nice Bob! Makes sense considering the track of the Jet Stream lately. You're getting air flow that originated up here in Alaska and the Yukon/BC! This is the kind of weather pattern - wild fluctuations of the jet stream and especially ocean currents - that lead to the Little Ice Age from 1300-1850. I personally think that we're slowly headed into another L.I.Age. Forget what the media tells you; the planet has been in a cooling phase for the past 10,000 yrs.

Well, I can say we've had almost every type of weather since we've been here...except good(!). We did have a thawing couple of days, one with sun in the afternoon. We hunted a sharp ridge between a lake and a swamp. The top of the ridge was very narrow in spots, maybe 20 yards, and the drop off on both sides was well over a hundred feet. It was very much like the hunting I remembered from SE Ohio back when the State had birds. On this day we found some, but better than finding them, Aspen pointed them, and he hunted well after so many barren miles earlier in the week.

Yesterday the wind blew so hard in the later afternoon that we came out of the woods for fear of trees falling. I've had this happen once before, and it's not safe to hunt. We'll try to hunt a short while today and pack the truck for our return home tomorrow. As poor and challenging as the hunting has been, I wouldn't trade these days, and I'm already scheming for when to come next year and which guns to bring. The DNR believes the Peak of the Cycle was two or three years ago. I'll be close to 75 at the next one, and I'm hoping to be in the woods with Elaine and some Gordon Setters.

I've enjoyed the replies to this thread. Richard is a better meteorologist than any I've encountered lately. The encouragement from those who know the sting of few birds was meaningful. It was comforting to read that Bruce was finding the same conditions, and that it was not just my poor hunting skills that was the reason for so few flushes. We did have several days with 10-15 flushes, but when you can't see them, you can't shoot them. Oh, well, that's grouse hunting. Our flush rate up to today was about 1.8/hr. It will be interesting to go back and compare that to other years. It's a nice thing about getting old (and there are not many) that you have the years to supply perspective.

Thanks again for the responses. I've got to get Elaine's coffee made so we can hit the woods this morning. Good hunting to all of you!

Photos:
1. You can come up with a lot of stories why the pumpkins were here about three miles back in the woods. The stories get better when it's Halloween.
2. A nice weather day makes you linger, even when the birds don't cooperate.
3. This spine ridge was like being in my old haunts from SE Ohio back in the 1980s and 90s. Unfortunately, the flushes I had chances at were among my toughest shots -- from below me and going down. I saluted a couple with my new CHE 20. Too bad I couldn't blood it on this trip.
4. Two tired friends that have staked out their place in the Cabin. One of the best parts of hunting here is that the dogs can come in and be with us at night.

Garry thank you for your comment's and photos. We need times like this to truly appreciate those days when everything falls in place. Grouse hunting is made what it is by the maddening unpredictability of them.

Daniel, I forgot to mention that earlier in our hunt we flushed woodcock out of about 6 inches of snow and after the weather had been below freezing for several days. Tough, resilient birds. Too bad they can't overcome the human disturbances to their lives.

Wow. Look at where the jet stream is today! A very wild fluctuation. Giving Minnesota and Wisconsin a hammering from the NNW then turning at the Ohio border to head NNE across Michigan and the NE; You can see here why Bob reported the rapid change of wind as this system moved east across his location. Note that the upper level winds are in the 150mph range. I'd guess that the woodcock might be hauling axx south at this point. This system sucking air from us here has us at 1degF as nice fresh colder air flows our way from the north.

https://www.wunderground.com/maps/wind/jet-stream

Garry is that a straight stock CHE?