I think the tags are getting returned the week before the season starts but only show up the next week on the reissue list, after the season has started.
Don’t feel bad about struggling to find Sage grouse this year, past few years I’ve put up a few dozen opening weekend. This past weekend we only put up 5 birds in two days of hunting with somewhere between 15-18 miles walked.
I’m gonna take my Subaru forester on my cross country bird hunting trip from CO to SD to ND to MN this October instead of the old gen one tundra just to save on fuel costs.
I would just shove it in a little plastic ziplock baggie and put it in my breast pocket while archery deer hunting in IL.
Stuff floats forever some days. Cool to watch when you are bored on stand with nothing to do. Don’t have much need for it now out in CO as I’m not really doing any archery...
That certainly looks like where you would expect to find ptarmigan, not that I have ever found one so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
As for dusky grouse, i definitely kill/see more from say 8:30am to 10:30am than 6:30am to 8:30am in Sept.