Grouse hunters in both Minnesota and Wisconsin have reasons to be optimistic about this fall's seasons, which open Saturday in both states.
Spring drumming counts were up 57 percent statewide in Minnesota and up 30 percent in Wisconsin's northern region. If nesting success was good, hunters could see one of the best seasons in several years.
"I'm going out on a limb and saying the harvest will be up," said Ted Dick, upland game bird coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in Grand Rapids. "I'm not saying it's going up 57 percent, but it will be up."
Drumming counts in Northeastern Minnesota were up 64 percent, said Charlotte Roy, DNR grouse project leader.
"During the last peak (in 2009), we saw an annual increase of 44 percent in the northeast, but 64 percent is exceptional," Roy said.
Ruffed grouse populations in Minnesota and Wisconsin tend to rise and fall in a 10-year cycle. Drumming counts this spring in some parts of Minnesota were on par with those of recent peaks in the cycle. And Dick said he thinks nesting conditions were relatively good, too.
"I still think we did OK in the weather department in June," he said. "Every year I say I'm optimistic. This year should be good. There's no reason to think it won't be."
Minnesota has more than 40 designated ruffed grouse management areas and 600 miles of hunter walking trails. For maps of hunter walking trails, visit mndnr.gov and search "hunter walking trails."
Woodcock numbers also are good in Minnesota, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Minnesota is the only state in the Central Region that has seen "significant" increases in woodcock singing ground counts from 2007 to 2017. Some woodcock breed and nest in Minnesota and Wisconsin, while others migrate through the two states on their way down from Canada.
Minnesota's ruffed grouse hunting season runs from Saturday through Jan. 1. The state's woodcock season runs from Sept. 23 to Nov. 6.
