Goodbye Southern Ontario Ruffed Grouse?

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Originally Posted by Cass

Talking percentages... a good thing to remember is whether it's birds or bunnies.... 10% of all the cover out there holds 90% of the game

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Definitely they need 3 major things to succeed water,food and habitat. Add in low prey and they will thrive.

Not to much like the hot concrete even the people next time your in the big city look on the packed bus and tell me how many look happy lol. None of them they look so miserable hahah.

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https://ruffedgrousesociety.org/rese...rus-infection/

As can be expected, this article off Google states that potential for adult birds to survive and recover from WNV is dependent on habitat quality. Areas hit by WNV will see more profound decline, and less chance of recovery, if only poor habitat exists.
I would class 90 percent of the habitat around my home as poor, due to lack of logging activity, by both private landowners and the Ontario government. The USA directs a lot of money into small game management and they actually fund maintenance of grouse habitat. I think we'll see the second coming of Christ before that ever happened here in Canada. Upland/small game management doesn't exist here. Maybe that's a good thing, as I don't see competent management being a possibility when the governing body would be the same group of fools who are going to "manage" our provincial moose population into non-existence within the next 15 years!

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Originally Posted by Frank16

Management of our wildlife( small and big game), and its habitat, is horrendous in Onatrio !

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Frank your spot on.

Example in Michigan - Gladwin Field trial grounds , 5000acres of grouse cover not for training or hunting ,strictly field trial .Just one example.

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Originally Posted by sidelock

With all due respect, expecting to find grouse in the same location where they were abundant 45 years ago is wishful thinking. That habitat is now too old to support grouse.

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What he said...

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

The turkeys disappeared when humans introduced the disease that killed off the local Chestnut trees. Humans were the ones to re introduce turkeys back into the Province. Humans were also the ones who logged and opened up more suitable habitat for ruffed grouse. Nature abhoring a vacuum I believe has a lot less to do with it that our impact.

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Who do you think caused the vacuum?

What about better land management? Get rid of the old woods for a rejuvenated forest for the birds to thrive in. If that's what it take for the birds. It's also recommended but never done to help control the forest fires. Only a handful of areas in Canada each year are done. Is that realy enough it's a win win.




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Originally Posted by Fenelon

I've just travelled 59km on my fat bike through my traditional grouse hunting haunts near Kinmount/Minden area. Much of it is through good to excellent grouse habitat where I've harvested hundreds of birds in the past 45 years of hunting. My total bird count was zero! Not even one single bird was flushed or seen. Incredible! It's literally extirpation of the species.
Back in the early 90's I would have seen at least 25 birds, even in poor years. I would mark 1994 -1996 as the last "half decent" hunting years where you could expect to get five or six birds with a dog in about four hours of hunting. Now you can hunt for four hours and not even fire a shot. Last December I looked for budding birds after the first snows and I might have seen three birds in total for 50+ hours of travel. There would have easily been 120+ birds in an effort like this back in the early nineties. West Nile is all I can figure , from reading all the literature. It's not habitat degeneration and it's not hunting pressure. Now my area has lousy waterfowl hunting and non-existent grouse hunting. Time to move north of Gogama/Timmins? I feel bad for my poor black Lab. I'll have to drive eight hours north now if I want him to pick up a few birds during the season.

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Still lots of grouse in central Ontario. Saw over 50 this year in deer season thinking they’re down a bit in the cycle since I saw more last year and the year before. Have a group of six that we saw some of of not all of them on the side of the road up to the cabin almost every day in the hunt. I still find good numbers in good habitat, I was disturbed to find a dead grouse on the ground this year though. Hoping it’s just because he flew into a tree or something instead of west Nile. If some virus starts killing grouse like crazy then the north won’t do well as those viruses do better in denser populations. Still convinced though that there’ll be lots of grouse as long if there’s good habitat and predator control.

I spotted one the other day as it flew up into the trees but only the one. I'm in the Clear Creek area West of Long Point and for the past few years whenever I see one it's always by itself, no flocks, no pairs just a solitary bird.

I actually have seen a few this past season in Norfolk, more than in the past. Could be the cycle and weather conditions worked in their favor. Nice to see regardless.

Had a old farmer tell me the grouse disappeared after the reintroduction of turkeys.