Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock Hunting in New Hampshire - Live for October Video

Join Northeast Regional Director of the Ruffed Grouse Society Joe Levesque as he mentors owner of ANR Design Alex Costa on his first hunting adventure. Along with friend Zach Hein the head to the north woods of New Hampshire as they hunt ruffed grouse and American woodcock. This film explores the camp culture of New England, the future of hunting, and the critical conservation issues that the Ruffed Grouse Society pursues.

New England 2017 Forecast for the upcoming Grouse and Woodcock bird hunting season

• Outdoors Dave Sartwell

Upland bird hunters will be getting some good news — and bad news — about the fall 2017 bird populations throughout New England. This past winter the ruffed grouse fared well, while the migrating woodcock flew straight into the blizzards of March. Let’s start with the woodcock. It’s important to understand the biology of these long-beaked birds.

Woodcock are the first ground-nesting bird to migrate north from their wintering grounds in the southern United States. They often arrive in late February or early March, looking for earthworms, grubs and other little crawlers that exist just below the ground surface. Usually, the ground is just warming at that time of year. They find their food sources on those sunny side-hill slopes or spring seeps that lose the first snows of winter. In one of the many miracles of nature, if there isn’t enough food to provide the energy necessary to produce eggs, they’ll maintain their body weight and delay reproduction. Earlier this year, however, they flew into New England just as we were experiencing a hard cold, followed by a large dump of snow. These new arrivals could not find enough food to eat to stay alive, and many perished in the cold. We haven’t had those conditions since the spring of 2007, when several snow storms in late March and April covered the Northeast. The only good news is that woodcock do not fly north in flocks; they are individual birds that move at their own calling. Because of that, some would have arrived later in the spring and taken a different route to get here. It’s still to early to tell the full extent of the decline this year, but everyone agrees there were less singing males in the spring woods — and there will be less young birds available this fall. Ruffed grouse populations have fared much better. Biologists are reporting that we should see normal to above-normal amounts of birds in the woods, depending on location. This grouse is one of the most widely distributed birds in North America, with the ruffed grouse being one of the smaller of the 10 different species. It’s almost impossible to tell an adult male from an adult female without examining the internal organs. The male tail feathers are often longer than those of the female, but aren’t a reliable indicator. There are two predominant color phases: red and grey. The birds in our region are mostly grey. Ruffed grouse populations have been tied to the amount of farmland under production. They love the logged-over areas, where the berry bushes and other food sources pop up when the forest canopy has been removed. Grouse numbers this fall will be steady or a little higher than usual. Grouse have pretty good mechanisms for surviving our winters: they just bury in, create their own cave under the snow, and wait for the storms to blow over. They also eat a wide variety of foods, which makes them more adaptable to weather problems. For example, in the winter they eat dead flower buds or the dried catkins of birch and cherry trees. After they hatch, the chicks feed mainly off a variety of bugs that are high in protein, which allows them to grow rapidly.

The woodcock season will open in Massachusetts Oct. 4, with ruffed grouse season opening Oct. 14. Both will open simultaneously in New Hampshire (Oct. 1) and Maine (Oct. 2). Read the full GloucesterTimes article

Free Workshop on Woodcock and Ruffed Grouse Hunting - New Hampshire

Get set for the fall grouse and woodcock season at a free workshop on Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock Hunting on Saturday, August 9, 2014, from 9 a.m. to noon at the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s Owl Brook Hunter Education Center in Holderness. Pre-registration is required. To sign up, call 603-536-3954.

The session will be led by grouse hunting enthusiasts/hunter education instructors Sean Williamson and Dan Keleher. Also Andrew Weik, the Northeast biologist for the Ruffed Grouse Society, will give a presentation on ruffed grouse and woodcock and their habitat needs.

The workshop covers the basic skills needed for the pursuit of these challenging birds. Participants also will learn about grouse behavior, hunting safety issues, hunting with or without dogs, gaining permission to hunt/landowner relations, clothing choices, shotgun and ammunition options, creature comforts for an enjoyable hunt and recipes for grouse.

Grouse hunting season in New Hampshire opens October 1 and runs through December 31, with a daily bag limit of four birds. Woodcock season opens October 1 and runs through November 14. To learn more about small game hunting in New Hampshire, visit 

http://www.huntnh.com/Hunting/Hunt_species/hunt_small_game.htm.

For more information about the Owl Brook Hunter Education Center, and directions to the center, visit http://www.huntnh.com/Hunting/hunter_ed_center.htm.

Educational activities at Fish and Game’s Owl Brook Hunter Education Center are funded by the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Program, supported by your purchase of firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department works in partnership with the public to conserve manage and protect the state’s fish, wildlife and marine resources and their habitats. Visit http://www.huntnh.com.

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Free Workshop on Woodcock and Ruffed Grouse Hunting - New Hampshire - 8/17/2013

Get set for the fall grouse and woodcock season at a free workshop on Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock Hunting on Saturday, August 17, 2013, from 9 a.m. to noon at the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department's Owl Brook Hunter Education Center in Holderness. Pre-registration is required. To sign up, call 603-536-3954. 

The workshop covers the basic skills needed for the pursuit of these challenging birds. Participants also will learn about grouse behavior, hunting safety issues, hunting with or without dogs, gaining permission to hunt/landowner relations, clothing choices, shotgun and ammunition options, creature comforts for an enjoyable hunt and recipes for grouse. 

The session will be led by grouse hunting enthusiasts/Hunter Education instructors Sean Williamson and Dan Keleher. In addition, Andrew Weik, the Northeast biologist for the Ruffed Grouse Society, will give a presentation on ruffed grouse and woodcock and their habitat needs. 

Grouse hunting season in New Hampshire opens October 1 and runs through December 31, with a daily bag limit of four birds. Woodcock season opens October 1 and runs through November 14. To learn more about small game hunting in New Hampshire, visit http://www.huntnh.com/Hunting/Hunt_species/hunt_small_game.htm. 

For more information about the Owl Brook Hunter Education Center, and directions to the center, visit http://www.huntnh.com/Hunting/hunter_ed_center.htm. 

Educational activities at Fish and Game's Owl Brook Hunter Education Center are funded by the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Program, supported by your purchase of firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment. 

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department works in partnership with the public to conserve manage and protect the state's fish, wildlife and marine resources and their habitats. Visit http://www.huntnh.com.