Grumbling over the lack of grouse has become commonplace. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. With each passing year, hope springs eternal for the state's bread and butter game bird species. Will these famous fan-tailed birds ever turn the corner to their stagnant status?

Though the scientific researchers establish a connection with the aid and abetting of modern radio harness wearing study subjects, the true cause and effect to the downward trend may be a touch beyond the grasp of mortal humans. The most oft stated connection is that of cold, wet, chick killing springs. This dog of an excuse just ain't huntin' for me anymore.

Cold and wet for sure it is in the vast majority of the more northern and primary range states of these otherwise extremely cold hardy creatures. The Great Lake states of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin are famous for their well documented grouse population "cycles." Our Mountain State birds are fringing on the southern edge of the range while on the northern one for quail. We can't seem to win for losing as neither of these famous game birds is thriving in here.

With the grouse in a permanent down, what's a bird hunter to do? You can either travel to better game bird states; keep beating the brush here or both. For those that stay home, be advised that all the leading grouse indicators are about as bad as the U.S. economy.

The four main clues to the population come from cooperating hunters and DNR staff. These indicators are the spring and summer brood counts, the spring gobbler and fall bowhunter surveys that tally their grouse and last but not least, the fall flushing rate of hunters in-season. Bill Igo, DNR's veteran grouse man is well tuned to the sad situation.

In fact, he's predicting a dastardly low flushing rate of less than one per hour this year. For the unfamiliar, an hour of beating the grouse coverts is a long time, one not for the physically unprepared. Igo also muses that the dang few grouse hunters left are getting older and just can't hear the flushes or cover the same amount of ground they used to! At least that's what he's hoping along with the older guys recruiting some younger ones to maybe prove him right.

Sure the statewide grouse coverts on the "landscape" basis may be giving way to more mature turkey woods, but there are still a lot of good coverts with few to no birds. You can't scapegoat the situation to coyotes, the DNR, ATV trails or whatever else comes up.

If I had a current clue, I'd give it. These are the most mysterious of birds that have captivated their pursuers for decades. Humbled hunters can just wait it out, even the ones (and their shorter-lived dogs) that aren't getting any younger. In the meantime, limit your take instead of taking your limit and hope for better times. When the grouse gods are ready to replenish, we'll be the first to know