GAYLORD-With recent reports of improved ruffed grouse drumming surveys, good 2006 woodcock recruitment throughout the Central Flyway and a major northern Michigan habitat improvement project scheduled to begin soon, northern Michigan wingshooters may have much to look forward to this fall.

A 29 percent increase over last year in spring ruffed grouse drumming was reported this year, said the DNR’s Upland Gamebird Specialist Al Stewart. "That’s significant over last year, which showed a marked increase from the year before that, one of the lowest years we’ve ever recorded."

The steady increases indicate that the state’s ruffed grouse numbers may be on the upswing, Stewart said, adding that improved spring weather conditions both last year and this year may also be at least partially responsible for the increased drumming, a mating ritual undertaken by male ruffed grouse to lure the female of the species. "If the weather is consistently cold and rainy, as it was in both 2003 and 2004, the grouse are not going to strut and drum very much, so you’re not going to necessarily know they’re out there," the biologist said.

The weather has been much more conducive to drumming for the past two years and is an indication of good winter survival, he added. "With almost perfect nesting conditions for females to hatch out and raise broods, we could see a good season this fall."

In fact, if theories regarding grouse populations running in 10 year cycles are true, fall wingshooting seasons could be very good for the next few years, with numbers peaking by 2010, he said. "Much will depend on other variables such as predation in the months and years ahead, as well as weather."

More good news for wingshooters came recently from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which reported that American woodcock populations, which are managed by the federal agency, appear to be holding steady in both the Eastern and Central Flyways, the latter including the state of Michigan.

"That’s really good news for us," said Jim Kelley, the Service’s woodcock specialist. "Especially after a long period of continuing and significant declines that began in the 1960’s."

The Service is now looking at the apparent correlation between the stabilization of woodcock populations and more restrictive hunting regulations placed on woodcock hunters in 1997, when daily bag limits were reduced from 5 birds a day to 3, to determine whether there may be a connection, Kelley said. "I’m not ready to say that the halt in the decline is a result of the additional restrictions, but it is awfully interesting, and something we’ll be looking at further with our HIP and other programs."

Habitat, which is also critical to the survival of both ruffed grouse and woodcock, is also receiving a boost starting this year, said DNR Northern District Biologist Glen Matthews. "Both species, as well as a number of songbirds and both whitetailed deer and Rocky Mountain elk, require large areas of successional growth aspen habitat as well as grassy openings, as food sources and cover. With a project known as the Lee Grand Aspen Management Plan that we have begun in cooperation with the Gaylord area Jim Foote Chapter of the Ruffed Grouse Society, we will be helping to ensure the future of all of these species."

The project, which applies to more than 5000 acres of state-owned public land in Cheboygan County near Black Lake, involves successional aspen cutting over several years, creation and maintenance of grassy openings, closing several two track roads, and improving several others while ensuring public access, said Matthews. "Over the course of the next three years, 10% of the total aspen area will be clear-cut, for a total of 1,160 acres. Beginning in 2015, the second cycle of treatment will begin, so that while some forest will be relatively new growth, other portions will be maturing, in a constant rotation of age class distribution."

Currently open to the public for both ruffed grouse and woodcock hunting, Matthews said that hunters in the Lee Grand project area should see benefits of the project within five years. "This is exactly the type of thing we have to have going on all the time if we want to ensure the future of wildlife in northern lower Michigan."

Michigan’s 2006 upland gamebird season opens September 15th.