Some years ago, I lived in North Bay, Ontario for ten years. A great little town, both my kids were born there. About mid September, every year, open season on Ruffed Grouse began. The locals called the birds "partridge" and it was quite common to see half ton trucks slowly driving along concession roads in pursuit of these often numerous and tasty birds. I said often numerous because they appeared very cyclic. Some years they were everywhere and hunters shared many stories of where and how they got there limit and how the wives prepared their "feed of partridge". Other years were very lean when only a handful of folks were successful in their hunt. It seemed to be normal, up there at least, to have a lot of Grouse one year and very few the next.
