September 15, 2021 - The kickoff of the upland bird season started with a quick trip into the state forests north of Sultan. I am by no means an expert at getting into grouse but the theory at least is that the actively logged state land offers the variety of timber and browse that grouse, ruffed grouse in particular, need to prosper.
Our day started with a mild case of the drizzles and low clouds, not ideal for the grouse to be on the roads for dust baths and pebble munching. In four miles of walking we didn't see a grouse or any other vertebrates of note. What was very prevalent were amorous slugs of both the black and banana variety.
October 1st, 2022: Back in the grouse woods for another dual purpose visit, this time chasing birds and sighting in the rifle for the deer season. I had found a promising quarry for the target practice but upon arrival found out I couldn't drive anywhere near it. So this is the story of one not so bright grouse hunter carrying a shotgun, a rifle, and a bunch of target gear for 8 miles...
Ok, calling it a story is overselling it, lets go with a couple observations from the field. We got the rifle sorted and walked a lot of roads without spotting a bird. With nothing to lose we tried heading into some woods that had been thinned to look for mushrooms and were pretty quickly surrounded by what I initially thought were chanterelles. They were flourishing in last year's tracks of the thinning skid steers. I had just enough cell signal to discover they were probably false chanterelles so I was able to avoid bringing home a bag of gastrointestinal distress.
Finally, at about 5 miles in I heard a grouse drumming back in the woods but he gave us the slip. Then at about 6 miles we stumbled into my backup bear hunting location for next year as at least one bear had developed a full time blackberry composting business on an old landing this summer/fall. Overall I would rate this location as much more interesting than the September attempt. Not only were there signs of birds and bears but the variety of habitats were also fun to see, everything from peat bogs to old growth forest and plenty of clear cuts in between.
