The birds have all of my attention

I’d pretty much given up big game hunting and turned all my attention to birds.

There were a number of reasons. I could shoot something every day for one. And if I was successful it didn’t take days to pack out the meat for another.

But this season is different. Blame the drought or the heat or a combination of the two, but hunting birds lately is starting to feel more like an elk hunt.

Over the first three days of the season, I saw one grouse and he appeared to passing through.

I’m hunting my favorite places, places that in the past have always held birds. Not this fall, however.

I’ve begun to think it would be a good idea to bring along the spotting scope, sit somewhere and pick the landscape apart, looking for that single bird. Then I could plan a stalk, sneak into range and maybe get off a shot.

I like to think the grouse are simply somewhere else and not gone. I imagine them reappearing in great numbers, offering me so many shots I run out of shells. But in the meantime I’m piling up the miles following the clouds of dust the dogs kick up in their wake.

Other bird hunters -- I’m sure of this – are finding plenty of targets, and bagging regular limits.

“Oh, we’re having a fine season,” they say with a smirk, “You’re not seeing any birds? That’s too bad. Do you have dogs?”

Badmouth me, but don’t besmirch my dogs.

I have a seasoned male who well knows the scent of gamebirds, and a year-old female with a very big motor.

They cover a lot of ground, but they’re finding nothing I can shoot at this time. I’ve gotten to the point where I would be happy just to see tracks.

This is not a case of an old man of diminished abilities who simply can’t do it anymore. At least I hope it’s not. There just isn’t much there.

On my fifth day out I watched three wild-flying grouse disappear over the horizon. The next day we actually flushed a few birds, and yesterday I got off a couple of errant shots.

Like elk hunting, spend enough time in their habitat and eventually you find them.

I may have to take a stand, get all camo-ed up and hide in the bushes, buy a grouse call and set out some decoys.

Or leave the shotgun at home, start packing the rifle, and try to fill my elk tag. It would be easier.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]