FOREST GROUSE

[setthehook]

Ruffs are everywhere this year.. up north anyway. Great eatin bird! nice sagey kick to em...
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[fish_or_die]

Nice! I've wanted to get out so bad this year and stupid stuff like work and school keep getting in the way!

Those look like blue grouse from this angle...
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[MacFisher]

Those definitely look like some good Ruffs to me! Although I would like to get out and snage me some good size blues. I love the hunt and love the eating after.
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[setthehook]

Haven't seen too many "duskys" (pine hens, blue grouse, chickens, or whatever you want to call them.) this year. Only killed one. These four i believe are mature ruffed grouse. But ya they really are good eatin. Like a pheasant thats been eatin the mountain brush, with a hint of pine.
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[Jethro]

I would have to agree that the grouse are in abundance this year. I have hunted my go to place (near Logan)this year and have harvested 14 birds between two trips.

The first was the opener and I took my kids to see what we could push. Saw 7 and harvested 2. It was a low shoot day but the year before I only saw 1 in the same place. So I spread out my kids pretty far to see what we could find.

The second was this last weekend. Took two other shooters with me and we saw 20+ and was able to harvest 3 full limits of birds in a couple hours.

The strangest thing is that the water holes that are usually dry at this time of the year were still flowing water.
I thought we were in a drought?
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[Springbuck]

Nice! Dial me in on what you mean by "up North" and I'm there. Every hole I've dug for rabbits, grouse and elk has been dry this year...

Logan area? Didn't see any on the north slope of the Uintas while bowhunting.
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[setthehook]

ya logan canyon
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[MacFisher]

After further investigation I need to take my foot out of my mouth. Those do look like blue grouse. I went up a canyon with my Dad Saturday and we had a discussion on whether or not the grouse I shot was a ruff or a blue. Looking into it I shot a female blue and it looks identical to a couple in the above picture. I shall research better before opening my mouth again.[crazy]
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[Theekillerbee]

Nice pile-o-birds!

Just for the record, the ones you can see the tail feathers on are blues. The grey band on the tail feather is on the end. Ruffies' bands (usually dark) are about 1/4-1/2 inch in from the end of the feather. So with the ruffie you get a brown/grey feather, then the band, then the normal colored feather again.

Either way, nice shootin' brutha!
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[fish_or_die]

Yeah, the reason I said they look like blues is the tail feathers are usually much more distinct on a ruff and these are very monotonous grey... but who knows, I could be wrong []
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[dma_ayotte]

YUP blues! look at this pix. Ones on top are blues and the ones on bottom are Ruff.

HOPE THIS HELPS...
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[MacFisher]

Easiest way to tell that I noticed is where the band is located. Also the blues have solid color to the grey tip and the ruffs continue their pattern till the strip and then after the stripe. Either way all birds look great and taste great.
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[setthehook]

Ya guess i was just hopin they where monster ruffs. But they are indeed female duskys. I think the ruffs taste a little better. Did kill a few ruffs though. I wish they got as big as blues. I have not seen many male duskys this year. The true blues
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[setthehook]

Has anyone ever heard them called dusky grouse? I have always called them blue grouse or pine hens or chickens. But reading the proc i see they are officially referred to as dusky grouse.
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[Theekillerbee]

They changed the proc a year or 2 ago....not really sure why. I always call them blues. Heck I've never heard of anyone calling them dusky grouse....I'll call em blues till I croak.
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[MacFisher]

Its funny how they have multiple names for the same bird. I will call them blues forever as that is what I have known them to be till the proc changed a couple years ago. I remember looking for them in the proc and wondering if I had the right name. It wasn't till I saw the picture of them in the proc that I realized they changed the name to dusky. The funny things the DWR does.[crazy]
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[chickendude1234]

It's not the Dwr that changed the name. It's the science comunity. There are now two seperate species of what used to be known as one species the blue grouse. The dusky grouse is the species here in the Rockies. And their Pacific counterpart is the sooty grouse.
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