My wife and I and the dogs spent a good share of Saturday afternoon walking some of our favorite covers in the Grayling are. Several flushes of both birds but about 2 to 1 woodcock:grouse. Our kill ratio wasn't very good but that is mostly do to my poor shooting. Lots of leaves on the trees yet.

Things got better Sunday. Killed a couple birds and had several more grouse flushes. Looking forward to some more leaves falling. Seems to be lots of food available too.

I also hunted the Grayling area this past weekend. The Woodcock population seemed to be up from from last year but for me Grouse flushes were down, probably due to the aging forest in my favorite locations. I need to venture out into some new spots that I have had my eye on for a few years. There were lots of berries in areas and where there were berries there were birds.

Agman, what is your feeling on the Woodcock population compared to last year?

It has been a tough season for me so far, like Agman says a few leaves need to fall.

Great time to be in the woods though the leaves are changing fast.

I think that the woodcock population is higher. We had about double the flushes on these as compared to this weekend last year. The grouse population appears to be about the same as last year. Most of the timberdoodle flushes were just sounds though. They disappeared in that leaf cover before I could even get a visual, much less a good bead. The dogs need a little work yet. I didn't do my job as well as I should have this summer.

That QDM stuff took up a lot of time. Well that and fishing is several different states, food plots and yeah and work!

Out again this weekend. Things reveresed from last weekend. About 4:1 grouse to woodcock. Unfortunatley my shooting skills have not improved significantly! Did manage to bring home enough of both species for a meal for all that participated. We flushed 12 grouse in 2.5 hours.

What? nobody is hunting upland birds?

While duck hunting in Roscommon county Saturday a.m. saw a bunch of woodcock. Took the decs back to the truck when done and made a pass around the beaver pond,...nothing. How can so many birds disappear just like that?

Flushed 20+ grouse Sunday p.m. in 2 hours. Too bad my partners don't shoot very well or we'd have had a nice bunch of birds. They either flushed in front of them or behind me or ahead of me or the sun was in my eyes or I was behind a tree or there was brush or..........

Headed for the Grouse and Woodcock coverts of Crawford, Kalkaska and maybe Missaukee counties this weekend. Should be a great weekend to be in the woods with the Setter.

Where exactly were those 20 plus flushes exactly?

Those flushes were somewhere near where you were. Give me you coordinates and I'll see if I can steer you in a little closer.