Hunting dusky grouse can give you the blues

HUNTING -- Hunting dusky grouse with a pointing dog is one part bliss and several parts misery and despair.
Duskies -- the name given a decade ago to the former "blue grouse" east of the Cascades -- are notoriously fickle about holding to a point.
They might hold, as did the one pictured above, or they may not.
They might fly up in a tree and look at you or they may flush at the hint that you're coming their way and rocket downhill a quarter mile into the timber.
They like high ridges and openings at the edges of timber. Often the terrain is rocky.
It can be tough going -- and tough shooting.
I liken dusky hunting to a chukar hunt with timber mixed in to increase the shooting difficulty factor.
I was one for three on Saturday with two other birds flushing a full 40 yards away from Scout's solid point.
Tough quarry.