You use an “English Cocker Spaniel” for hunting grouse and woodcock??

What dog are you running for grouse? “English Cockers” I reply. You use (with a chuckle) a “cocker spaniel” for grouse?? Yup I calmly and confidently answer. If I had a dime for every time I heard this I would be carrying a much fancier side by side while following our dinky dogs in the woods and prairies.

Why do I use English cockers for upland hunting? Seeing the dog quarter and quest looking for a morsel of scent, seeing their head snap back and almost turn themselves inside out, or seeing them pick up a scent and take a track…picking up speed closing in on the quarry, charging in and with a leap putting a bird in the air! That makes my heart flutter and leaves a big grin on my face.

Flushing dogs in general and English cockers in particular need to be more precise hunters than pointing dogs. The job of a pointing dog is to go out and find, point, and hold the bird until the hunter gets in position to flush and shoot. The position description for a flusher is to find and promptly put the bird into the air. The difference is flushers need to find them within gun range if the hunter has any chance of bagging any birds. Therefore, you and the dog both need to put your butts where the birds are, the closer working the dog the more in sync you need to be with your dog. English cockers are naturally some of the closest working flushers; meaning YOU need to know where your quarry will be if you and your dog are going to have success. You need to have a good grasp of when your dog is making game with a flusher if you want to harvest any birds. This is a totally different mindset than when hunting behind a pointing dog.

Where to find grouse and woodcock?

Where to find grouse and woodcock?

Grouse thrive best where forests are kept young and vigorous by occasional clear-cut logging, or fire, and gradually diminish in numbers as forests mature and their critical food and cover resources deteriorate in the shade of a climax forest. The dense young growth from full sunlight hitting the ground provides good protection from predators especially hawks and owls. In the winter and spring mature male aspen buds are critical for survival. Having pockets of conifers supplies cover in bad weather. So, the best habitats have young dense stands near mature aspen with pockets of conifers preferably with branches nearly to the ground nearby.

The best young growth for ruffed grouse habitat is aspen the diameter of about a 50 cent piece and about 10 years old. This lasts for 10 years or so before the aspen naturally thins itself and provides less protection from predation.

A male grouse may spend his entire life in as little as a 6-10 acre area, the best survival is where all habitat components are within that area.

According to Gullion (Gordon Gullion is the father of ruffed grouse management) the very best habitat of 10 to 25 yr old aspen/birch can have 20 drumming males per 100 acres. In comparison balsam fir/spruce habitats may have 3-6 drumming males per 100 acres.

Habitat matters! We need to support and promote young forest habitats!

Is habitat just trees?

All wildlife habitat is a collection of feeding, roosting, breeding, nesting and resting areas. In my college wildlife classes many years ago I learned that wildlife habitat is like your home, you have a kitchen, bedroom, and living room. If you have to go out to the restaurant to eat your meals you have a much better chance of being in an accident than if you can prepare your meals at home. If you sleep out on the street you are not as safe as in your home. Same thing with a ruffed grouse, if they can find their food, roosting, drumming, and nesting all in the same areas as they have their safety (dense young forests), they will be at the highest numbers.

Earlier we said having mature aspen nearby was an important winter food source, the same can be said about white birch, ironwood, black cherry, and/or hazelnut near the young thick stuff especially with some conifers that have branches most of the way to the ground makes for ideal ruffed grouse habitats . The mature aspen, birch, ironwood, cherry and hazelnut are winter and early spring food. That doesn’t do us much good during the hunting season except maybe in December when the ground becomes snow covered, but is important for ruffed grouse survival leading to more stable populations even in low parts of the cycle.

Ruffed grouse magnet foods

What are some fall food sources? There is an abundance of food for a ruffed grouse in the fall, but some are like magnets. One of my favorites is “wild raisin” (Viburnum cassinoides). This shrub is a magnet in the early season especially in the mornings and evenings when they will be feeding right in the shrubs. Hit this one early though since the berries drop fast after frosted.

Another magnet food in the fall are crabapples. Crabapples are in the Rose family (Malus spp.) and are especially good after a frost when they “sweeten” up.

The dogwoods, gray, silky, and red osier (Cornus spp) have white berries that draw grouse all fall.

Michigan holly or Common winterberry (Ilex verticillata) is a magnet even into late fall.

Black cherry is a good fall food source along with acorns from oak trees, especially if being fed on by deer, they break the acorns up making it easier for the grouse to eat. Serviceberry and choke cherry are good as well.

Beaked hazelnut and witch-hazel draw grouse. Beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta) has catkins and witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) flowers in the fall, both are good grouse foods in northern Michigan.

Other food sources

Leaves of young aspen early in the fall, many ground plants such as bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), partridgeberry of course (Mitchella repens), wild lily of the valley (Maiathemum canadense) and wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens).

After leaves drop and many berries are gone; plants that have evergreen leaves such as clovers, wild strawberry and goldthread are good food sources.

Once snow covers the ground look for mature male aspen trees (the ones with the big buds), white birch catkins, ironwood buds, black cherry buds, and hazelnut catkins.

Here is a November grouse crop of wild strawberry, black cherry buds, white birch catkins and the tip of a fern

Woodcock

Woodcock and ruffed grouse habitat is the same…right?

Woodcock and grouse habitat does overlap. That is why you can target both birds and have success. Thinking back to our discussion on habitat, woodcock’s food is much different. The main diet for woodcock is earthworms, along with other insects found near the soil surface. That is the reason for the woodcock’s flexible special bill. Woodcock are a migratory bird and spend their winters mostly in the Gulf states. Whereas ruffed grouse use mature aspen/birch for winter food sources, woodcock use grassy openings for “singing grounds” and late summer for fall nighttime roosting.

Knowing this, looking for prime woodcock habitat means we are looking for moist soil conditions (for easy probing and finding earthworms) near openings. Singing grounds can be rather small such as log landings, but late summer and fall roosting openings are usually 5 acres and larger. Woodcock also like young dense forests. They actually like younger stands than ruffed grouse do, so look for under 10-15 year old stands. I do however find them in good numbers in slightly older stands if near openings.

Being migratory means they will be there one day and maybe not the next.

Keep in mind that the woodcock season DOES NOT open the same time as ruffed grouse in Michigan, check the regulations.

How do you hunt thick forest birds with an English cocker?

Hunting the thick stuff

I’ve often heard English cockers called “edge and hedge dogs” and you can’t go too wrong following that advice. As stated on page 2, you need to know where your quarry will be, we learned some of the grouse’s food sources earlier, but when will they be there? Ruffed grouse in general feed for a short time mornings and evenings. The best habitats have food sources that border the good thick safe habitats such as older more mature forests (with oak, beech, cherry, birch), or areas of fruit bearing shrubs and trees (wild raisin, crabapple, chokecherries or autumn olive ) along or in the thick young aspen. When hunting alone I walk just into the older stand or along the shrubs letting the dog look for scent and lead me to the grouse, if hunting with a partner I put them in the more open stand and I walk in the thick stand. We are hoping that the bird trying for all it’s worth to escape the hard flushing English cocker flies into the more open giving a good shot. Another “edge” that grouse frequent are logging roads. If you are hunting alone a good plan is to make a hunt parallel to the logging road, but in the thick stuff 75 yards or so away from the trail, then come back along the trail. This tactic will move some of the birds to the edge of the logging trail and they have a tendency to hold for your walk back.

We learned that woodcock like the thick cover too, but also use openings for roosting cover, often walking back into their daily feeding and loafing covers. Migrating woodcock use roads and streams to help navigate south so concentrating along streams, drainages, and logging trails is a good strategy for woodcock too.

Walking logging trails can be productive

Early morning and late afternoon are good

How close is close?

Range is always a topic of discussion be it pointing dogs or flushers. I have hunted over flushers for more than 40 years. As time goes by my preference is for closer and closer working dogs. Partially a lack of knowledge and training skills my early days were spent hunting behind flushers that ranged out of sight often and most birds shot were flushed back, I think they were anyway. Nowadays when hunting myself in the grouse/woodcock woods I prefer my English cocker to range as far as 15 yards in front and 25-30 yards to the side especially when walking a logging trail. When working in the thick stuff I like them even closer. When hunting with a partner we generally walk about 30 yards apart and I like the dog to quarter 10-15 yards outside of the guns and 10-15 yards in front. I would be happy with a dog that stays 5-10 yards in front and 10-15 to the side as long as the dog has a good nose and takes a track well they will produce birds for you, IF you put them where birds are!

I am NOT a believer in “take the dog out and they will learn to hunt”. Discuss training with your breeder, get into a spaniel training group, even if you are only going to be a hunter, and learn how to get the most out of your English cocker, for the dogs sake as well as your own.

There is nothing that puts a big ole grin on my face like seeing one of my English cockers take a track, stop to the whistle while I keep my overweight butt close enough to see the dinky dog leaps up right behind the flushing bird giving me a good shot.