Dean, your observation does not surprise me. Weather anomalies can and do cause trouble for our wildlife.
I believe the same year you are referring to I was running dogs in early March with temps very high for that time of year. I was moving quite a few grouse and thinking what a wonderful year we were going to have. It stayed warm and the foliage began to pop. The dogs pointed a grouse the third week of March that would not flush and upon close inspection found that she was sitting on 10 eggs. I quit running dogs when I feel the birds are beginning to nest so this was my cue to stop for the season. The next week we had 15 inches of heavy, wet snow. It only stayed on the ground for a few days. After it melted I went back to the nesting grouse and found her dead sitting on the nest.
Forward to that fall. Despite good early spring numbers it was almost impossible to find any birds and those I did find were all males. I quit shooting a short way into the season. I keep pretty good flush records and over the years have developed my measure of bird numbers. When my flush rate gets down to 1/hour it is about as bad as it gets. This year my flush rate was .2/hour. Yes, that's right, 5 hours of on the ground time for 1 flush.
I've been chasing grouse for over 50 years and never saw bird numbers this low.
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