I decided to come home early from Alaska due to very low water.
So yesterday I checked 3 of my grouse spots.
It looks like there are very good numbers.
After walking only 15 minutes, Dot locked up a nice point, and up they came. I doubled, and there were at least 5 birds in the rise.
They were both birds of the year. I didn't try to follow, but shortly had another point that I had no shot on. Five minutes later another with 4 birds that I could see. I decided to look at another area about 10 minutes away, heading for a seep, which is where I found the first birds. We were immediately into birds. Dot and Cholla(Choya) traded points for the next 7 birds, over the course of only one hour! I shot at one, and the dogs retrieved it. I passed on the others, deciding they were all youngsters. At the third spot further up the same canyon, a bird flushed as soon as I let the dogs out. I spent about an hour there and shot my last bird, filling our 4 bird limit. I dropped the last bird and my 28 Repro back at the truck and let the dogs run. We had a number of additional points and some wild flushes. I checked my counter at 3:30 pm and it was on 27!
The birds were all very close to water. It felt almost unfair.
I'm going to leave these alone for a couple weeks to mature a bit more. But I am very excited to see such numbers. I'll be checking other spots this week and have high hopes for more good production numbers.
It was great to get out, but the temps were in the low 80's and it is very dry. We are supposed to have rain this next week. I hope it will allow the grouse to get a bit further away from the obvious water sources where they are so vulnerable.
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