You worked hard for that grouse
limit. Your dog worked even harder. It's a shame that when you asked
your buddy to take a photo to commemorate the moment, his shadow
obscured the dog, the top of your head got cut off and the grouse were
so blurry they looked like an impressionist painting of cockatiel.

The Great Lakes Region, Mid Atlantic Coast, St. Lawrence Plain and Prairie Pothole Region are important to New York waterfowl hunters.

A significant amount of the mallards harvested in New York each year are produced in the St. Lawrence Plain, Great Lakes Region and Mid Atlantic Coast. We receive a good part of our diving duck migration from the Prairie Pothole Region and Great Lakes Region. A considerable portion of our teal and other puddle ducks originate in the Prairie Pothole Region.

The Ruffed Grouse Society has recently compiled their 2009 Grouse and Woodcock forecasts*. Forecasts are available for a wide variety of states. Thus, if you don't see your favorite grousing spot listed below, be sure to check out the full list on the RGS website.

New York

Abstract: Singing-ground Survey data for 2009 indicated that indices for singing American woodcock (Scolopax minor)
males in the Eastern and Central Management Regions are not significantly different from 2008. There was no
significant 10-year trend for woodcock heard in either management region during 1999-2009. This represents the sixth
consecutive year that the 10-year trend estimate did not indicate a significant decline in the Eastern Region. The 10-
year trend in the Central Region returned to stability after showing a significant decline last year. Both regions have a
long-term (1968-09) declining trend of -1.1 % per year. The 2008 recruitment index for the U.S. portion of the Eastern

This May, Gilli & Mel placed second in the Whispering Pines Chuckar Challege. Congratulations!!! This one day
event was a tournament style hunting that included both flushing and
pointing dog divisions. The event is timed and scored with 5 chukar partridge
released per run, Dog and man teams had 25 minutes to hunt for
flush, shoot, retrieve and bag as many of those five as possible. Each
hunter had 10 shells to use during the course of his run. Points were awarded
for flushes, birds retrieved, shells turned in and any unused minutes.
Nine teams (dog/man) entered the event this year with most of the dogs entered