A day late on this week's photos. While most of you are trapping or chasing deer, I'm still doing a bit of bird shooting as I check my marten line. Here's some older upland bird hunting to tide over the week.

Blue grouse and a tired Brittany


Chukar chasing, to me, is pretty much unbeatable.


An older photo from Alaska with wife, black dog, and rock ptarmigan.


Jack

Nice !

Great shots, Jack. Looks like fun. Thank you for sharing.

Big snow here , on down to your place, I'm seeing. Region wide. Love seeing the snow fall on hemlock and cedar boughs. Looks like white lace on the needles. Enjoy the transition !

Super pictures Jack, thanks for posting. Memories when you look at pictures again, say on a blizzard snowy nite.

Back in the day on a high ptarmigan cycle!

Finally some duck hunting weather showing up here.

Made our yearly man trip to Nebraska a few weeks ago. Real hard hunting. 50 mph winds and we could only hunt hard one day. Got 6 birds and had a blast with the boys. Love the Sandhills. Boys and I had a good laugh at Ballards Marsh. Someone at the state thought the outhouse needed posted.lol

PS gun in pic is one of the boys. I wouldn’t stoop to the level of shooting such fine birds like sharpies with such a weapon. Lol

Always enjoy this thread.
maybe it is a soft point for Brittany tired or not
and then there is the line drawings, wonderful Sharon especially the female timberdottle, sure do miss banding those guys.

Our ruffed grouse cycle is in an upswing and the funny thing about this year is a big increase of Hippoboscidae or louse flies or keds
Almost everyone has had one or two. It appears to be also found on our Great horned owls as well.

To those that have not seen these they are a slow moving fly and cool grouse and your warm hand they fly to. The fly has very large tarses on their feet and you feel them dig in, they will climb under your sleeves and move around , only to jump onto your skin. When you go to catch them they jump or fly only to come back to you again. The bite from one you would know it pdq.
They have been responsible for spreading WNV through some of the endangered bird enclosures before they knew what was happening.

October spruce grouse and big mallard banded locally 3 years ago

The spruce grouse have them here and they are a creepy bug, big flying lice!

I thought Northof50 and a few others may b3e interested in this abstract.

Incidence of Louse-flies ( Hippoboscidae ) in Some Alaskan Birds

Jackson S. Whitman
Published 2004

Information was gathered on the incidence of hippoboscid louse-flies (Diptera, Hippoboscidae) on passerine birds in interior Alaska during 1987. Other authors have discussed louse-fly infestations in birds, but always in areas with less severe climatic conditions. The hippoboscid species found (Omithomya bequaertl} was described by Maa (1969) as a new species, and few data are available on abundance, hosts, or distribution. A total of 429 birds of 28 species was examined for louseflies. This paper documents 10 avian hosts, from five families; eight of those hosts are newly described. Adult louse-flies were found during a 70day period from 23 June through 29 August 1987.

Jack; We looked up your paper and found a copy in Bird Bander did not see you worked with any grouse. But I know it's a time-bomb when a grouse gets in a mistnet second only to a black capped chickadee.
One of the current researchers a lady from Quebec is publishing some of the DNA analysis of Hippoboscidae from the raptors they captured in raptors from Lake Ontario.

Thanks North! The hippoboscids are an intriguing critter being a live-bearer, feeding on blood, and living between the feathers (rather thin-bodied in side view).

Anyone having encountered these flies please PM me and I will give instructions how to send them through as they are doing a ton of work on the DNA of the species.

One thing about it is that with dogs they usually land and bite their nose when the grouse cools. So when you see your dog act strange that is what happens. Those claws do dig in when the fly lands because they are use to landing on feathers, not on your flesh or the dogs soft nose.

Sorry to hijack your thread Jack
and send shivers up Sharon's back as usual talking about bugs.( but I know she has had keds on her horses)

A small black dog. But he would hunt.

UGHHHH ! All parasites....need squishing !

Taking a break during a pheasant hunt (because the dog was tired).



A buddy gets a double on ruffed grouse. Two flushed, two shots, two down.



A tired and muddy flusher.



"It gets the mud on it's skin, so it gets the hose agin."



The new pup flushes and retrieves his first timberdoodle on his namesake ridge (Boomerang Ridge).



A limit of woodcock.



Boomer retrieves a downed hen pheasant out of the creek.







A double on roosters.



A mixed bag, a woodcock, a grouse and a cockbird.



Almost a double limit but my hunting buddy couldn't hold up his end.



Seven pheasants in two days.

Up north at the cabin

Great pictures!! I really enjoy bird hunting with dogs!!

Great pictures and information.
I have seen those flat flys on blue grouse. I didn’t know they could bite. I guess I have never left one on me long enough to find out.
The picture of the October spruce grouse is cool. Ours don’t have the cream color on the end of the tail. They’re black all the way to the end.
I love hunting with a dog but due to family reasons I don’t have one. I still hunt a lot of birds. It changes how you hunt when you are the dog and shooter.
I took a break from chasing elk Friday when I saw fresh blue grouse tracks crossing the road. I followed him for about a half mile before he lost me in some snowless sage and rocks.
I did manage to put a maxi ball into this guy yesterday morning.

And sleds they are not just for snow.