The Sportsman's Corner: Grouse, woodcock and a bald eagle, too! - Athol Daily News

This writer returned Sunday from my annual trek to upstate New York. The centerpiece, for the past 10 years, has been the Ruffed Grouse Society New York Grouse and Woodcock Hunt. It has been my pleasure to be one of the huntsmen AKA guides for this outstanding event, which is held to raise money for the RGS since its inception. Dean Scudder, a fellow huntsman who hails from Sunderland, told of a conversation he had before leaving. He was asked what he was doing in New York, and he explained that it was a fundraiser for the conservation work of RGS to help ruffed grouse and woodcock, among other species. So, he was asked, you go there to kill the birds you are trying to help?

That question has been posed to me many times and it takes time to explain the conservation picture where habitat is the absolute key. Without habitat, wildlife struggles and populations plummet. With quality habitat, like that which is created by the cutting practices promoted by wildlife biologists to create early successional growth and healthy forests, wildlife populations like ruffed grouse and woodcock can flourish and populations increase. In fact, the bird covers used by the 40 hunters for the New York hunt and are most heavily hunted by good hunters with trained bird dogs each year produce the highest flush counts, data which is used to determine population trends. So, mortality from hunting is not a factor in populations of grouse and woodcock if the habitat is high quality. That equates to early successional growth, which is a boon to many species of wildlife for five to 10 years before it matures and no longer is good for wildlife. Mature forests are not useful to most species of wildlife and edge habitat is preferred by songbirds, small mammals, deer, turkeys and most of the game and nongame species.

On the subject of habitat, Mount Grace Conservation Land Trust Executive Director Emma Ellsworth and her husband and hunting partner, Tom Ellsworth, attended the hunt with her two German shorthaired pointers, June and Kona. All four had a great time. Mount Grace is actively involved in initiatives to promote conservation in partnership with MassWildlife and other state agencies and non-profits in collaborations which hold great promise for local wildlife populations and all those who enjoy and appreciate them and want every user to have healthy forests and wildlife going forward for the next generation to enjoy as we have. Todd Waldron, Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society (the group is a merger that has created an even better organization) Forest Conservation Director for the Northeast, has been working extensively in Massachusetts to put together partnerships which will multiply the effectiveness of the partners and create healthy forests and thus benefit a wide range of wildlife in addition to grouse and woodcock.

My Saturday hunt was guiding two local Massachusetts hunters, Greenfield orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jeff Hayer and his friend, Jared Duff. Duff had a young English pointer that had hunted put and take pheasants but never wild birds. It was a well-bred and completely trained dog and extremely biddable. My plan was to use my knowledge of the cover and the prevailing wind to put the dog in a position to handle the woodcock my scouting had located. Sure enough, within minutes, Dotty was solidly on point and Duff made a good shot and the day was off to a great start! The temperature that morning was 29 degrees, down from the week's highs of 60-plus. The sky the previous evening, at the gathering of the hunters and huntsmen, was filled with V after V of Canada geese and it was hoped that if they were migrating, so were the woodcock. Unfortunately, in most of the covers, local woodcock had begun to move south but they did not hold flights of migrating woodcock, a nocturnal species. Grouse were in all covers and a few of them were taken by the hunters.

After arriving Tuesday with Laney, the hunting had been good with each morning producing a three-bird limit of woodcock. Those birds, and those taken by other arriving huntsmen, were expertly prepared and wrapped in bacon as part of the abundant hors d'oeuvres served at the five-star dinner Saturday night at Donovan's Steak and Ale in Malone, New York. Worth the five-hour drive!

And now for the eagle

Tuesday, a mature bald eagle was in my back yard finishing off a domestic duck he was having for lunch when I returned from my trip to the Orange landfill. The majestic bird flew across the street and spent an hour perched high in a spruce tree before flying off. It was my hope the bird would return to the kill, but he had consumed the breast and most of the easy meat and the photo op never happened.

This weekend will be the annual Berkshire hunt with Dr. Steve Williams and his son. Matt. traveling from Pennsylvania and Kansas, respectively. They will join former MassWildlife Director Wayne MacCallum visiting Ginny Akabane and remembering our dear friend and inspiration, Board Chairman Gig Darey, as we hunt his favorite bird covers.

Mike Roche is a retired teacher who has been involved in conservation and wildlife issues his entire life. He has written the Sportsman's Corner since 1984, has been a Massachusetts Hunter Education Instructor for over 40 years and is a licensed New York hunting guide. He can be reached at mikeroche3@msn.com.