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Birds All to Yourself

By Jim Zumbo

Oct 4, 2004

Sage Grouse
The sage grouse is also low on the priority list, although I've seen places near towns where a few parties of hunters look for them on opening day. After that, it's rare to find anyone hunting the big sagebrush country they inhabit.

Sage grouse are the biggest grouse in the United States; a big male will tip the scales at close to 5 pounds and have a 3-foot wingspan. They don't fly fast but they do flush explosively out of cover. Most newcomers to sage-grouse hunting tend to shoot ahead of them because the birds fly a bit more slowly than they appear to. My favorite strategy is to start the morning hunting around water holes. Look for cattle: Their presence usually betrays a water source. If you're unfamiliar with the area you're hunting, you might walk for miles and never find water-or a grouse.

Since these birds are unique among grouse in that they have no muscular gizzards, you won't find them feeding in agricultural areas with grain crops. Instead, they feed mostly on sagebrush and other soft vegetation. For that reason, a mature bird tastes similar to an old sagebrush bush, and it takes some creativity in the kitchen to render it edible. Field-dressing the birds immediately after they hit the ground helps some, but not a whole lot.

Sage grouse are declining in some areas, mostly due to a loss of sagebrush. This Western plant has been eradicated in some areas because of land development and because of the practice of planting grass to increase livestock forage. Long-term droughts have also affected sagebrush, and a mysterious malady in northeastern Utah is killing off tens of thousands of acres of it.

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