It's been a long time since hunters have been able to hit the woods in search of the sharp-tail grouse here in Michigan. This year, that all changes in two Upper Peninsula counties, where sharp-tail grouse numbers have proven not to be as low as once thought.
Eric Sharp, the outdoors writer for the Detroit Free Press, notes the new season in a recent article.
Excerpt: One of my favorite sounds is the "cluck, cluck" a sharp-tailed grouse makes as it flushes from a grassy hillside in the Dakotas or Wyoming. These chicken-size birds are not just challenging to hunt but delicious table fare.
In the past decade, I've been able to hear that sound on maybe one trip a year because the nearest decent sharp-tailed grouse population is 900 miles away.
That's going to change this fall when Michigan holds its first sharp-tailed grouse season in 12 years, Oct. 10-31. And while the initial hunt will only be in parts of two counties in the eastern Upper Peninsula, our sharp-tailed numbers apparently have not only been stable but are greater than biologists realized.
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Source: Detroit Free Press
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