The December expedition with bird-hunting enthusiast John Linkus speaks volumes about what grouse hunters must do to enjoy their pastime these days. Linkus, a medical products salesman, and I started out our day on a 30-acre parcel in the Allegheny Mountains on the Virginia/West Virginia state line. Making a quick trip through a greenbrier thicket and then a tangle of downed pitch pines, we managed to put up one ruff.

Then it was off to land I own in Monroe County where we visited an old, overgrown orchard. And even though John's dog became "birdy" at times, the pooch failed to go on point. We then went to Potts Creek Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in the Jefferson National Forest where we made, in order, a pass through a creek hollow, then along an old logging road with grape copses surrounding it, and finally a run through a pine thicket -- all without putting up any birds. All in all, we spent a half-day chasing after ruffs with only one bird flushed and no shots fired.

This run-and-gun style of man and dog hitting a variety of places with a variety of habitats is what modern-day grouse hunting often takes the form of in today's West Virginia bird country. Were we discouraged? The answer would be that we had expected to work hard and travel far to put up a few birds. And we were not really surprised at the outcome. No one would label these as the good old days for fool hen fanciers, as grouse hunters have to labor mightily to put up a few birds and to shoot even fewer of those you catch a glimpse of.

GROUSE RESEARCH PROJECT
Currently, West Virginia is one of a number of states in the Mid-Atlantic involved with the Appalachian Cooperative Grouse Research Project. The focus is to investigate the population dynamics and habitat use of ruffed grouse in the central Appalachian Region. Fifteen study areas exist in eight states and two of those lie in the Mountain State -- in Randolph and Greenbrier counties.

The study features several objectives. A crucial one is to place radios and to monitor 40 ruffed grouse in each area, specifically checking on these birds twice weekly. Researchers collect data on mortality, when it occurs and the causes, the types of habitats birds select throughout the year, the nest and brood production and chick survival, and how we hunters affect birds. In the eight states, 1,200 grouse have been radioed and monitored.

The last update was in May when some interesting tidbits were released. One result was that grouse mortality was mainly pinned on avian predation with mammals holding down the second spot. As I, and many sportsmen had expected, hunting was listed as a "small part of the predation picture averaging about 15 percent of the total." It is simply hard for hunters to kill a grouse any time they wish.

Another result of the study shows that reproduction has been very low in the study area with only about one chick per hatch reaching adult age itself. With high predation and a short life span, grouse are understandably right now at low population levels. And this high mortality obviously affects populations.