As we get closer to October’s hunting season, it’s notable that with the decline in pheasants, grouse now provide about the only traditional upland bird hunting game in the state. While many enjoy grouse (and woodcock, if available) hunting, maturing habitat (and perhaps bad nesting weather and predation) seems to be taking a toll on this once abundant game bird. Note below the average statewide grouse harvest per participating hunter (3 birds) for the entire season.

Some interesting data during the 2009-10 hunting season was gathered by DEC using a voluntary grouse hunting log format. In all, 284 hunters participated in the Cooperator Ruffed Grouse Hunting Log. Grouse log participants reported data from over 3,000 hunting trips across the state, from the lower Hudson Valley in the south, to the Adirondacks and St. Lawrence Valley in the north, and the Lake Plains and Allegheny Plateau in far western New York. They spent over 8,200 hours afield and flushed over 10,400 grouse (about 1.2 flushes/hour). Some general findings from the 2009-10 season include:

Hunters participating in the survey averaged about 29 hours afield during the 2009-10 season. They took about 11 trips afield for the season and spent about 3 hours afield per trip.

Grouse log participants averaged about 37 grouse flushed per hunter for the 2009-10 season and had to spend about 48 minutes hunting in order to flush one grouse. In addition, hunters averaged almost 3 birds harvested for the season and had to invest about 9 hours of hunting effort to harvest one grouse. On average, one out of every 11 grouse flushes resulted in a kill.

About 70 per cent of the effort expended by hunters occurred during the first half of the season (September - November; Table 1). In addition, about 80 per cent of the grouse flushed and 79 per cent of the grouse harvested occurred during this early part of the season. The flush rate was higher during the first half of the season (1.4 vs. 1.0), but varied by month with a peak in November (1.5 flushes/hour).

The effort expended by hunters was similar on public and private lands, but hunters saw and killed more grouse on public lands. Over the past three seasons the flush rate has been similar on public and private lands.

Overall, there was far more effort expended in the southern grouse season zone (over 70 per cent of the total), but the flushing rate was higher in the northern season zone (1.5 vs. 1.2 grouse flushed/hour.

Hunting effort was well distributed across major geographic regions of New York State. About 45 per cent of the hunting effort took place in western New York (39 per cent Appalachian Hills & Plateau Ecozone, 6 per cent Lake Plains Ecozone), about 30 per cent in northern New York (15 per cent Adirondacks-Tug Hill Ecozone, 9 per cent St. Lawrence Valley Ecozone, 5 per cent Champlain Valley Ecozone), and about 25 per cent in the southeastern part of the state (14 per cent Catskills-Delaware Hills, 12 per cent Mohawk Valley-Hudson-Valley-Taconic Highlands).

The highest number of grouse were flushed and harvested in the Appalachian Hills & Plateau Ecozone, followed by the Adirondacks-Tug Hill, Catskill-Delaware Hills, and St. Lawrence Valley ecozones.

The flush rate was highest in the Catskills-Delaware Hills and Adirondacks-Tug Hill ecozones (1.6 grouse flushed/hour), followed by the St. Lawrence Valley (1.5 grouse flushed/hour), and Appalachian Hills & Plateau (1.2 grouse flushed/hour) ecozones. Flush rates in the Champlain Valley, Mohawk Valley-Hudson Valley-Taconic Highlands, and Lake Plains ecozones were below the annual statewide average of 1.2 grouse flushed/hour.