
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 25, 1993                   TAG: 9310270050
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GROUSE HUNTING OUTLOOK DOESN'T APPEAR TO BE BULLISH

Grouse season opens today, a week earlier than in the past, and that has some hunters wondering how well they will be able to see these wily woodland birds through forests that remain pretty well clothed in leaves.

But there is an even more pressing question: Will there be grouse to see?

Brush-worn grouse hunters have languished through three season when they've had to push through cover for one hour on the average for every bird sent roaring into the sky. That is slightly below the long-term average. The rate has been as high as 1.57 during the 1982-83 season and as low as 0.88 during the 1988-89 season.

Don't expect any spectacular turnaround this time.

"I have no reason to suspect it is going to do anything toward record setting," said Gary Norman, the upland game bird research biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Just what kind of season will it be?

That question best will be answered with the sensitive nose of a skillful pointing dog, but there are some first-day facts worthy of pondering:

The field observations of game officials indicate that broods are down. "We have seen that the past couple of years," Norman said.

During the past three years, there have been near-record numbers of juvenile birds in the bags of hunters. That normally can be taken as a sign of good reproduction.

"I would think that at some point and time that would catch up with us and our population would start to swing up," Norman said. "Whether it is going to happen this year or next, I can't say for certain."

Mast conditions, especially soft mast such as berries, apples and grapes, are good to excellent throughout most of the forestland. That will scatter the grouse.

"It is going to make the birds a little harder for hunters to find," Norman said.

Even through grouse numbers are expected to remain fairly level this season, there are pockets of prosperity. One is the far southwestern section of the state where strip mining has created considerable grouse cover.

"Real avid grouse hunters are traveling to that area of the state," Norman said.

When you look beyond the borders of Virginia, it becomes obvious that grouse populations are in the grip of a nationwide down cycle, from the Great Lakes States southward to the Appalachians. Hunters hope that means there is nowhere left for these birds to go but up in number.

Virginia's season continues through Feb. 12.

by CNB