The hunting on a wood grouse`s floor.



Wood grous

The hunting on a spring mating-place can be begun from that time when wood-grouses begin to sing songs very excitedly. It is easier to approach to the wood-grouse when the snow melts as on deep snow the approach is difficult. The hunter failing almost till a belt moves very slowly. And it is difficult to drive up the ski without noise especially on thin crust of ice over snow.

It is necessary to find mating-places in the early spring going on thin crust of ice over snow. The future mating-places can be established through "drawings" - traces of wood-grouse"s wings on the snow and through excrements under the trees. In those cases when you have to find mating-place later, it is necessary to go in the forest in the afternoon and to observe where the wood-grouses are placed and are fed. Usually they do not fly far from mating-places and are fed with pine-needles. It is necessary to lift them from the ground from the last year`s cowberries and bilberries.

In the evening it is necessary to sit in these places and to listen: whether the wood-grouses fly to spend the night on the mating-place. After the mating-place has been established you should go there since evening. The spending the night should be established so that the wood-grouses will be not frightened. If the way to the mating-place is well-known, you can go there without spending the night. You can only approach to the mating-place before dawn. The wood-grouses must not be frightened.

To make sure where the wood-grouses will perform courtship rituals it is necessary to go to the mating-place since evening. It is necessary to sit at some distance from the mating-place. Usually the noise flight is heard at 8 o"clock and then the loud flap of wings. It means that the heavy cock has arrived and takes seat on a tree. He pulls and bends the neck and utters the sound "krack". If the mating-place promises to be good the other cocks arrive in two or three minutes. They take seats not far from each other. As soon as the sun has a seat the wood-grouses begin to sing.

It is possible to approach to the wood-grouse during the evening mating-place. But it is necessary to remember that the evening mating-place proceeds not for a long time. The hunter can not be in time to approach to the wood-grouse who will become silent at approach of twilight. Leaving the mating-place it is possible to scare the wood-grouses and to spoil the morning mating-place.

It is necessary to go to the place of sleeping after having waited for darkness.

The wood-grouses begin to perform courtship rituals after flying of the morning woodcock. Having spent the night at a fire, the hunters go to the mating-place up to dawn to approach to the mating-place prior the beginning of courtship display. You should not approach to the mating-place very closely. You can frighten wood-grouses. You must stop and wait, very sensitively listening whether the wood-grouse will begin to sing. The sounds of courtship display of wood-grouse are audible for two hundred - three hundred steps depending on weather. In the clear frosty morning the song is heard further even for four hundred steps and in the dull weather - much closer. The wind prevents the hearing. Expecting the beginning of courtship display of wood-grouses, it is necessary to observe silence, to talk by whisper, do not smoke. If it is necessary to cough you should close a mouth by a cap.

From the very beginning the trilling becomes audible. Then it is necessary to begin to advance very cautiously in the direction of the wood-grouse until the second part of the song will be distinguished. From this moment it is necessary to approach "under the song". Only at this moment the wood-grouse does not hear the song. And during this period you should make two or three steps in the direction of the cock expecting the movements so that you can hear the end of the song. The movement of hunter must be limited in an interval of song-time and stopped before the ending of the second part of the song.

While the wood-grouse is far, the hunter can suppose some inexactitudes concerning the specified rules. But the closer the hunter will approach to the wood-grouse, more attentive and more cautiously he should be. The slightest inadvertence makes the wood-grouse become silent. Having listened the disturbed cock can depart.

At the beginning of courtship display the wood-grouse only trills, then he becomes silent and he listens. Then the trilling becomes more frequent, the tempo of the song is increasing, suddenly the wood-grouse interrupts the song, he becomes silent or only occasionally trills. At these moments the hunter must stand still saving an immobility in that pose in which he has found the stopping of song of the wood-grouse. The cautious bird catches the slightest movement, an easy hardly audible sound of cracked twig and in these cases the bird becomes silent for a long time.

During the second part of song it is possible to make any noise: to run, to make the way with a crash through bushes, to break thin ice on a pool.

You should shoot only "under the song". The wood-grouse is not afraid of flash of flame and does not stop the song. If you make a shot "under the song" in case of a miss it is possible to shoot at one and the same wood-grouse two or three times.

It is better to shoot at the wood-grouse by small shot number 1 and number 0. The best shot is in a side. In this case there are chances to hurt bones of a wing and the wood-grouse does not depart. The shot in a breast is worse and the shot in the flowing tail and in the belly is also worse. The shooting during the pre-dawn twilight is difficult. A big bird seems to be a pigeon.

The wood-grouse sees very well during his song, but approaching to him in the darkness it is possible not to be hidden and to choose more convenient direction, to run across in open place. As soon as it begins to dawn it is necessary to approach to the wood-grouse more cautiously being hidden for trees and bushes.

As the wood-grouse changes his situation, the sound of song sometimes becomes stronger sometimes becomes weaker. And it seems that the sound is heard from different places. It is necessary to strain the hearing and to find out where the bird has a seat. It is necessary to look around.

The singing wood-grouse extends the neck and shakes by the head. This movement betrays him though the body of the bird can be hidden among rich branches.

The hunters usually jump up making two or three jumps or they approach by large steps. When you jump up you can faster approach to the wood-grouse and it gives the opportunity to kill two or three cocks. But in some cases the conditions of mating-place do not allow to jump up: the thick underbrush, abundance of fallen trees, the strong swamped place.

The closer you approach to the wood-grouse the clearer becomes the song. If the rustled sounds, making by the wood-grouse at the moment of spreading a tail and the wings, are audible, the hunter should remember that he is close to the wood-grouse.

If on the mating-place there are several wood-grouses it is better to choose the last wood-grouse and when you have approached to him it is necessary to shoot at him under the song of the nearest cock to whom it will be possible to approach. Very often the silent birds are hindrance. They have seats not far from the mating-place birds. They fly with noise frightened by the hunter. They make the mating-place wood-grouse prick up their ears.

The last wood-grouse and approached to him it is necessary to shoot at under the song of the nearest cock, to whom it will be possible to approach. Very often silent birds are hindrance. They at not far from the mating-place bird. They flay with noise frightened by the hunter. They make the mating-place wood-grouse prick up their ears. Hen-wood-grouses, sitting on the trees cluck strengthened. As the result they bring in passion the cocks. But seeing the hunter they flay from the tree on the tree with disturbed clucking. Then the wood-grouses stop singing, they listen and often depart from the mating-place together with hen-wood-grouses. It should not forget that hen-wood-grouses do not come flying in the first period of spring mating-places and also at the end, after they have sat on eggs.

The weather is very important for the successful hunting on the wood-grouse`s mating-places. Silent wind less and warm days are the best time. A little rain, snowfall, cloudiness and the weak wind do not influence negative. The light April morning frosts do not worsen and sometime improve conditions of mating-place.

If the frosts are stronger the hen-wood-grouses do not come flying to the mating-places. They appear only those days when minimal day-temperature is a little bit higher than zero.

The wood-grouses do not perform courtship rituals during sharp northern wind, strong rain and snowfall. The birds feel the approaching of bad weather. Before bad weather the birds gather on mating-places but they do not sing. They only trill. Before the approaching of good weather the wood-grouses perform courtship rituals during bad weather.

The spring mating-place stops in May. At the first ten-day period of May the hunting on the mating-places usually stops.


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