I mourn the game birds we’ve lost. What’s next?

Hunting game birds in the fall is great fun but we must protect what’s left.

Gone, at least from Michigan, are some birds we once hunted. Hunters did not drive these game birds away nor did they kill them off, but humans and their intrusion into the birds' backyards did the job, quickly and quite effectively.

I remember 40 years ago in a hill-top tent blind between Lake City and  Marion, along highway M-66, and watching the prairie chicken drumming grounds within easy sight of the highway.

The drumming grounds is where prairie chickens once gathered in the spring, and the males would puff up and  their air sacs would inflate, and they would make a most distinctive noise. The cocks would dance for the hens, and little did I know as I watched and photographed the primitive prairie chicken mating dance from the small tent, that one day in less than 10 years they would be gone forever from this state.

Pheasants are fairly common but sharptails & quail  have low numbers/

Prairie chickens are now extinct, as they have been for about 30 years. The areas where these open prairie birds would dance in the early spring dawn, would soon be gone as well.

A man I know used to have a lek (prairie chicke dancing ground) near his home on M-66. He said the fault wasn't the result of over-hunting but of dwindling habitat and aerial predation.

"Once hawks and owls became protected from harm by the Federal government," he said, "the days of listening to the thunder of drummiHunting game birds in the fall is great fun. We must protect what’s left.

ng prairie chickens were numbered. We still saw a few in 1975, but I believe they were declared extinct by 1977 or 1978."

He said the noisy spring birds were easy prey for late-cruising owls and early rising hawks. The birds would dance out in the open, and an ambitious aerial predator found easy pickings. The old-timer said that as soon as the chickens were gone, the hawks and owls foraged heavily on what pheasants remained in the area until they too were gone except for the occasional rooster or hen.

Where once ringneck pheasants were common in his area, and throughout much of the middle and southern counties, their days also were numbered. He occasionally hears a crowing rooster pheasant, but no longer hunts the few that remain on his farm.

Another bird is finding it hard to hang on to its small pockets of native cover. As more people move in, and carve up old fields for lots to sell, more and more of the natural cover of the sharptail is disappearing across the Upper Peninsula.

The last time I hunted sharptails was 17 years ago in Michigan's eastern Upper Peninsula near Pickford. Two of us walked in behind a staunch pointer, holding steady on point, snuffling a nose filled with the heady scent of sharptails.

Sharpies are fun to hunt but will fly three-quarters of a mile after flushing.

The birds flushed, and I took a bird flying to the right, swung through it, and with a swinging gun barrel, touched off one shot. To my surprise, two birds fell with just one shot.

Sharptails are slowly losing their wide-open habitat, and when flushed now, they often cackle and soar for one-half to three-quarters of a mile, clucking as they glide to a soft landing. Try to catch up, and they will flush again, well out of shotgun range, and it's easy to walk miles trying to catch up with sharpies that, once flushed, get airborne when the dog and hunter are far out of shotgun range.

The bobwhite quail seems to be hanging on in some southern counties. Their habitat also is shrinking as more and more land is used for home foundations, buildings, paved parking lots, and other areas no longer capable of producing good wild bird cover.

I've shot but one quail in this state although I delight in hunting these quail-birds in Alabama and Georgia where the birds are still fairly common. Our birds continue to fight for the weakest of toe-holds. Cold winters with lots of snow, ice-covered spring fields and fence rows, and poor food supplies can lead to a season closure on these gallanat little game birds.

And, it's easy for those hunters who have never hunted quail --the gentleman's game bird -- to take too many from a covey. Those who know better will take just one or two birds from a covey. A covey rise is one of the greatest experiences in the life of an ardent upland bird hunter.

Woodcock and ruffed grouse are back but prairie chickens are gone forever.

Many Michigan hunters lament what they perceive to be an ever-decreasing number of ruffed grouse and woodcock. The birds are still there, and grouse seem to be in their upward cycle and woodcock numbers are slowly making a come-back from a downturn in numbers several years ago.

The fact is these birds are still here but are becoming increasing difficult to find. Many, like deer, have learned the better food supplies are found on private land rather than  state land.

I know where grouse hold and the tag alder runs where woodcock leave chalky-colored droppings behind. My idea of hunting them is to hunt them but I usually limit myself to one killing shot per year. It's fairly easy to do with only one good eye, and besides, if the bird isn't killed, chances are we can play at being the hunter and hunted another day with very similar results.

That pleases me very much. Seeing and hunting these game birds doesn't always mean killing them. It's just a good excuse to give a bird dog something to live for.

Title: I mourn the game birds we’ve lost. What’s next?

Tags: ((Dave. Richey, Michigan, outdoors, prairie, chickens, are, gone, grouse, pheasants, quail, woodcock. fairly, plentiful))

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