Although I enjoy hunting, be it for wild turkey, deer, rabbit, duck, squirrel, etc., if I were forced to pursuing just one game species, it would be ruffed grouse – often called the "king of the uplands." I savor everything about these russet feathered rockets. I love hearing a cock bird "drumming" in the spring, and the gorgeous autumn habitat I seek them in. Or watching a good grouse dog working through it; then the explosive flush that, regardless of the thousands of times I'm subjected to it, still startles me. And last, but not least, I enjoy grouse meat as table fare (not that I've harvested all that many each year)

You might think it's a bit strange that I'm writing about grouse – a fall hunting topic – at this time of the year, but I'm elated that, for the first time in several years, we've had two excellent spring nesting and poulting seasons back-to-back. Another reason is, I'm concerned that quality grouse habitat is continuing to shrink throughout the much of the state.