Best grouse hunt ever...

Never thought I'd be the guy to say that I love hunting in New York!  I know, get a rope, right!?  Have to say it was a completely positive experience from the very beginning.  The woman that sold us our licenses at the NYSDEC in Buffalo was friendly, knowledgeable, helpful, and we really enjoyed visiting with her.  Of course, losing the hunting rig for four days put a bit of a crimp in our fun, but we pressed the Impala to its limits in pursuit of the elusive ruffed grouse...
Actually, the favorable impression began back in September when a DEC biologist traded several e-mails with me about likely habitat.  He suggested we try Tioughnioga WMA south of Cazenovia, so that's where we slid in the front-wheel drive on top of the melted lake effect ice and snow.
We started off on a WMA trail, but didn't like the cover, or the fact that there were boot prints, so we moved off trail to find better cover and the birds the lazy hunters hadn't already.  Since the weather had been pretty crummy, we headed for the nearby fir trees since they provide better foul weather protection.  Had to back/hack our way through brambles and briars to get there - the kind of stuff grouse love.  Sure enough, big ol' pile of grouse poo under the first fir!  Wonder if there's anyone on the planet that gets as excited about upland poop as I do?  At least confirmed our strategy, so we struggled down slope through the thick stuff with Kali casting just below.
Leveled out at the bottom of the slope where some beavers had turned the stream into a series of ponds and bogs - also favorable habitat for ol' ruffy and Sophia's first up-close experience walking across beaver dams, inspecting gnawed trees, etc.
While I was pointing out the catkins, or aspen buds, that grouse eat during the fall and winter, Kali went on point on the other side of a berry thicket.  The two grouse flushed wild, but Sophia was also able to experience the distinctive explosive rumble of a flushing forest grouse.
We crashed up the hill we had just come down in unsuccessful pursuit of the birds, then wandered back down towards the beaver ponds.  Spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through really beautiful forest, ducking under firs, oaks and aspens, backing through impossible tangles of briars, admiring the industrious beavers' activity.  No more points or flushes, but moving two birds after solving the upland puzzle with Sophia and showing her everything I had learned over the years was as good as I could hope for...

Sophia gasped in horror and said my face was bleeding, so I consented to a supposedly horrific photo since you're supposed to be getting swatted in the face when you're in the right grouse cover...yeah, not as bad as she thought.

My hunting buddies in some epically beautiful forest.