Just heard a couple reports about grouse hunting in Pennsylvania that seem to indicate a banner year is in progress. Three guys from the Philipsburg area reported moving 36 grouse last Thursday, another 30 on Friday, and 8 in a couple hours on Saturday. Another guy from Jim Thorpe is reporting five flushes per hour this year and has limited (harvesting two grouse), every time out this year.

This kind of news is pretty hard to take when you consider that a buddy and I hunted five beautiful northern Pennsylvania covers last Friday and moved exactly one bird. Either the planets weren’t aligned properly or we’re just plain inept. I’ll let you decide which. I’m hoping to get out a few more times before deer season. Hopefully things will improve.

Bear season begins Monday and runs through Wednesday throughout the Keystone State. There’s also an extended season during the opening week of firearms deer season in certain wildlife management units. The Pennsylvania Game Commission is predicting good opportunities for the state’s bear hunters.

Bear harvest numbers were down a bit last year, due mainly to bad weather on the opening day of the three-day season. Hunters killed 2,360 bears last year compared with 3,122 in 2006 and 4,164 in 2005 (the state’s largest harvest on record).

The Pennsylvania Game Commission estimates the bear population to be between 14,000 and 15,000 animals. “Our black bear population is a remarkable resource,” says Mark Ternent, PGC black bear biologist. “Every year since 2000, more than 100,000 bear hunters have headed afield, with harvests exceeding 3,000 bears most years, yet many local bear populations across the state have remained stable or increased. It’s a good time to be a bear hunter.”

“We expect bear populations to be comparable to last year or higher where harvests were low last year, Ternent said. “The exception may be in the northeast, where we have been trying to reduce local bear populations through the use of an extended season.”

“Hunters should take around 3,500 bears if good weather prevails, maybe more if there is snow cover, in the upcoming seasons. If we follow the state average, about 30 hunters will take a bear that weighs 500 pounds or more.”

“License sales indicate there may be an increase in the number of bear hunters this year,” Ternent said. “ Couple that with what appears to be at least a stable, and possibly larger, bear population and it could translate into a good bear hunting.”

I haven’t gotten a bear license in years. I’m not even sure I’d shoot one if I had the opportunity, but there was a time when it would have been quite the thrill. I never went into the woods expecting to see a bear, we mostly used bear season as another excuse to head to camp, but if one had showed up, I’d have been most pleasantly surprised. Your priorities change as you get older, I guess. If I head out hunting this week it’ll be for grouse, and my with luck I’ll end up seeing a big bruin.

-- E-mail comments to jdsteese@yahoo.com.