# December Grouse Cover



## Lucky Dog (Jul 4, 2004)

There has been some chat on here recently about what kind of cover to hunt in December.
This weekend I took a few pictures of my favorite December grouse cover so folks can get a visual of the type of cover I like. Hopefully, others will post up some pics of their cover type. 
Sorry for the quality, but it was a dark day, and heavy snow cut my hunt short. This cover produced 15 grouse in a hour and a half hunt.

This one shows pretty much the common theme in all the shots, Ground cover. I look more for ground cover than overhead cover this time of the year.
Goldenrod, blackberry cane and standing fern.











Here is a crab apple tree, on fruit year, these are grouse magnets.










Grouse valley, crab apple, grass, pine, aspen, goldenrod oak nuts and water.











More ground cover. The cedar blow down had a nice cockbird under it.











This red stemmed stuff can be great. The deer like to browse it down to snow level, so you can get great ground cover that is waist high.










A little mixed pine never hurts, but too much can make shooting tough.










I hope others can post some pics to show what different types of covers we all look for. I'm sure that we all look for something different and they ll produce birds.

LD


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## dauber (Jan 11, 2010)

Lucky Dog! I will try to get the camera to work tomorrow if it don't snow too much should make it out for a walk. 

That last picture of yours looks like some of my covers. Our ferns are flattened by all the snow we have had already.


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## Jon Couch (Jan 10, 2011)

Thanks for the picks as a newby to grouse hunting the cover photos really give me a visual of what I should looking for.
Thanks again

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## Lucky Dog (Jul 4, 2004)

Dauber, most of our ferns are flat too, this time of the year, I really look for thick ground cover, and that will help hold the ferns up against the snow.

I look forward to seeing some UP December covers.


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## g&d (Jan 15, 2006)

So far I'm still finding them in the same cover as October. My experience through the years is not much changes until there's snow on the ground. Then I look for more evergreen edge cover.


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## N M Mechanical (Feb 7, 2008)

Still finding them in the same covers as I was In august
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## TimBuckTwo (Jan 3, 2009)

That's a great post, thank you very much. I am as a grouse newb as well. I will be the Grayling area the last weekend of December for a hunt and will be looking for area like this, as long as the snow isn't crazy deep. Thanks again.


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## dauber (Jan 11, 2010)

December grousing has the added challenge of snow most years here in the EUP. The birds change habits slightly in the snowy conditions vs no snow. I could really see it last week when Dec. 1st we had 4-6" on the ground the birds were mostly in conifer areas/pockets. The ones we got had almost totally birch catkins and black cherry buds in their crops. A couple days latter all the snow melted and as others have said above we found them where we did in early/mid season. Now the snow is back and they are back in the conifers more. 

Todays hunt was cut short due to heavy snow, but following are a few pictures of the habitat we hunted in. 

This is a thick aspen stand on a fertile site with quite a bit of black cherry, some white birch, ironwood, alnd balsam. Nearby is mature maple with some mature aspen and white birch as well.











Here is an alder run with balsam, spruce and cedar swamp on one edge and younger aspen like above on the other side. This run often holds birds when they peak out of the conifer. But not today, the 2 that flushed were in the conifers.











Here is a white birch top with catkins, you have to look really close to see the 3 pronged catkins. This is one of the important food sources this winter with a lack of fruits. Now keep in mind when the snow melts like it did last week the birds had greens like wild strawberry, clovers, gold thread and wintergreen leaves in their crops.











This is a ridge swale complex that usually has michigan holly berries, but not this year, but there is some mature birch and aspen they are using this year. This picture is of the mature aspen/white pine/balsam where the birds hang on these snowy days.











Here is a pic of the other side of the trail where the aspen/ balsam has been harvested. On days I get some grouse they are over on this side of the trail. 










It is looking like our December grouse hunting maybe winding down unless there is a big melt. It was tough getting down to some of these fairly accesable areas, with the 6+' called for today I will be waiting for ice!


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## TimBuckTwo (Jan 3, 2009)

dauber said:


> December grousing has the added challenge of snow most years here in the EUP. The birds change habits slightly in the snowy conditions vs no snow. I could really see it last week when Dec. 1st we had 4-6" on the ground the birds were mostly in conifer areas/pockets. The ones we got had almost totally birch catkins and black cherry buds in their crops. A couple days latter all the snow melted and as others have said above we found them where we did in early/mid season. Now the snow is back and they are back in the conifers more.
> 
> Todays hunt was cut short due to heavy snow, but following are a few pictures of the habitat we hunted in.
> 
> ...


Excellent stuff. Thanks!


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## milmo1 (Nov 9, 2005)

Great pics. These 2 especially get me itching to go.


Lucky Dog said:


> Grouse valley, crab apple, grass, pine, aspen, goldenrod oak nuts and water.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Lucky Dog (Jul 4, 2004)

Dauber, keep that snow on your side of the bridge!
I can already feel that stuff going down the back of my neck.

Good point on the greens if the snow melts, I've been finding various buds and mixed greens in the crops of my birds.

NM Mechanical, do you have any pictures of those August to December covers?


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## elysian (Oct 20, 2011)

This is the most helpful stuff you guys can put up for those of us still figuring this game out! (Aside from coordinates  )

Keep them coming!


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## dauber (Jan 11, 2010)

Lucky Dog said:


> Dauber, keep that snow on your side of the bridge!
> I can already feel that stuff going down the back of my neck.
> 
> Good point on the greens if the snow melts, I've been finding various buds and mixed greens in the crops of my birds.
> ...


I think we kept in the EUP, Yes the last few trips ahve been neck chillers or just stick to the trail. Just finished running the kubota blower on about 10+". I will have to travel much farther than 10 mintues now to go grousing! Good luck to yous guys.


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## N M Mechanical (Feb 7, 2008)

Lucky Dog said:


> Dauber, keep that snow on your side of the bridge!
> I can already feel that stuff going down the back of my neck.
> 
> Good point on the greens if the snow melts, I've been finding various buds and mixed greens in the crops of my birds.
> ...


Your pictures with the creek is what I have been in all year just add some kerns and you take them right of the nest
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## dauber (Jan 11, 2010)

Today I was up in Luce County hunting a 30-40 acre aspen cut with hardwoods on one edge and a swamp on the other. I like this cover in December for my flushers since I can circle it, calling the dog off any runners and shooting at any flushers. Then after teh circle I walk the middle skid road where the runner pile up and usually hold well. I've shot and shot at lots of grouse here.

This is the aspen on the hardwoods edge.










This is the aspen on the swamp edge.









Some days they aren't in the aspen but in the swamp, usually tough shooting then. The bonus for me and my spaniels are the bunnies along the swamp


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## Lucky Dog (Jul 4, 2004)

Glad you posted those pics Dauber, I was hoping the snow had not ended your season.
I hunted a zone 3 cover on Sunday and took a few pictures. The area is a little different, and has a lot of low marshy areas surrounded by oak ridges. And by ridges, I mean a 1-4 foot increase in elevation.
Anyway the first spot can be a really fun cover to shoot if the birds are there, it is made up of mostly waist high brush, with a cattail swamp on one side and a oak ridge on the other. 

The waist high brush.










Lucky for the grouse they were not in that cover, as you can imagine, the shooting can be easy.

The oak ridge is medium sized trees with a lot of under brush.










The ridges have a lot of winter green.



















I finally found a few birds in this type of cover.










Unfortunately, my shooting was dismal, and I couldn't examine any crops to see what had been dinner.


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## dauber (Jan 11, 2010)

Lucky Dog said:


> Unfortunately, my shooting was dismal, and I couldn't examine any crops to see what had been dinner.


Ditto for me today 

Nice looking covers LD. Think I'm heading south tomorrow....south Mackinac co anyway. I will be looking for some of those low ridges hopefully with the wintergreen and berries.


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## dauber (Jan 11, 2010)

Here is a pic of my sandy ground low dune/swale complex. Gives grouse variable foods and covers in close proximity. It's hard ot see in the pic, but the bracken ferns are being supported by blueberry bushes. There is lots of wintergreen covering the ground too, only this year there are very few berries.


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## Lucky Dog (Jul 4, 2004)

Today I decided to make a trip to the promised land. A wonderful cover that usually produces multiple flushes. I had not hunted it this year, so I was looking forward tio giving it a go today.










The promised land is on the far side of the creek. There is 50-80 yards of tag alders, 50 yards of mixed stuff, then on the top of the ridge is a young aspen cut. Fun stuff. Unfortunately, with the rain and snow, the creek had risen and washed out the small log that I usually cross on. No promised land for me today. I stayed on my side and the only point we had produced this slightly peeved off guy.











The next cover had some nice areas in it, overall it looked like this,










But had multiple pockets of thick cover, mostly dogwood. In good berry years these patches hold berries through December. This year, it just provides good cover.











With the new snow, many areas are getting really difficult to access. I hope your hot spots are still hunt-able. Good Luck.


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## TimBuckTwo (Jan 3, 2009)

Here are some photos of cover that I was in this weekend. The first photo is what most of the walking was like. We were in Aspen cuts ranging from 12-20 years old. Along an eastern hillside is where we flushed 3 birds in quick succession. There was 8"-16" of snow on the ground. The snow was so heavy and wet that many Aspen tree tops were on the ground as the trees doubled over. We didn't flush one bird from conifers during the weekend. All flushes we had were on the edges of regrowth areas.


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