"Come, then, let us away,
And with our shotties pay
Respects to Mister grouse,
Who, strutting cockily
‘Neath yonder aspen
Seems to say
Screw you,
You’ll not bag me today."


And yes, I do have too much time on my hands ...

Is that a Newman?

Um, no, I strung those pearls together after reading "Pteryplegia" again for the umpteenth time.


https://archive.org/stream/pte...ark#page/n3/mode/2up

Heading off to visit mr grouse next week.

Can't wait.

K

I started my hunting as a very young boy with Ruffed Grouse (Partridge) in the new growth poplar forests and woodlands of Northern Minnesota.
Today I live in Idaho and it's still the most anticipated season for me. Last Saturday while stalking my Mountain Goat in the 7 Devils, I flushed a brace of Blue Grouse. I forgot about the Goat for a moment using my left hand I pointed and imagined mounting and firing on the left bird then refocusing and mounting on the second for a nice double. Grouse can break my concentration on even a once in a lifetime animal.

Plus at nearly 50 years, packing out 4 grouse is a heck of a lot easier than a big Billy.

This Nevada high country blue grouse was fried tonight with white gravy and mashed potatoes. I had some exceptional cow elk eye-of-round that also went into the skillet.

A glass of shiraz went well with both.

This is my friend Jim from Ely NV who knew the spots. The birds were holding close to water or were very high up in aspen saddles. He shot it, but my old dog Cookie knew who to retrieve to. It wasn't to Jim.