Gone, at least from Michigan, are some birds that sportsmen once hunted. Hunters did not drive these game birds away nor did we kill them off, but humans and their continuing intrusion into the birds' backyards did the job, quickly and most effectively.

I remember 35 years ago on a hill-top between Lake City and  Marion, along highway M-66, watching the prairie chicken drumming grounds within easy view of the highway.

Prairie chickens were the first to disappear

The drumming grounds is where prairie chickens once gathered in the spring, and the males would puff up and  their air sacs, and they would make a distinctive booming noise. The cocks would dance for the hens, and little did I know as I watched and photographed the primitive prairie chicken mating dance from a small tent, that one day in less than 10 years they would all be gone forever.

Prairie chickens are now extinct, as they have been for 30 years or more. The areas where these open prairie birds would dance in the early spring dawn, would soon be gone as well. Sadly, one dancing ground has been paved over and several businesses cover the area.

A man I know used to have a lek (dancing ground) near his home on M-66. He said the fault wasn't the result of over-hunting. as they were protected, but of dwindling habitat loss and aerial predation.

"Once hawks and owls became Federally protected from harm," he said, "the days of listening to the thunder of drumming prairie chickens quickly became numbered. We still saw a few in 1975, but I believe they were declared extinct by 1977 or 1978."

He said the noisy spring birds were easy prey for late-cruising owls and early rising hawks. The birds would dance out in the open, and an ambitious aerial predator found easy pickings. He said that as soon as the chickens were gone, the hawks and owls foraged heavily on what pheasants remained in the area until they too had quickly disappeared.

Ringneck not as prevalent as in the past

Where once ringneck pheasants were common, and throughout much of the middle and southern counties, their days were also numbered. He occasionally hears a crowing rooster pheasant, but no longer hunts the few that remain on his farm.

Another bird is finding it hard to hang on to small pockets of its native cover. As more people move in, and carve up old fields for lots to sell for home building, more and more of the natural cover of the sharptail has disappeared.

Sharptails hanging on but losing ground

The last time I hunted sharptails was nearly 20 years ago in Michigan's eastern Upper Peninsula near Pickford. Two of us walked in behind a staunch pointer, holding steady on point, snuffling a nose filled with the heady scent of sharptails.

The birds flushed, and I took a bird flying to the right, swung through it, and with touched off a shot. To my surprise, two birds fell with just the single shot.

Sharptails are slowly losing their wide-open habitat, and when flushed now, they often cackle and soar for one-half to three-quarters of a mile, clucking as they glide to a landing. Try to catch up with them, and they will flush again, well out of shotgun range, and it's easy to walk miles trying to catch up with spooked sharpies.

Bobwhite quail fun to hunt but are low in numbers

The bobwhite quail seems to be hanging on in some southern counties. Their habitat also is shrinking at an alarming rate as more and more land is used for home foundations, buildings, paved parking lots, and other areas that are no longer capable of producing good wild bird nesting cover.

I've shot but one quail in this state although I delight in hunting those quail-birds in Alabama and Georgia. Our birds continue to fight for the weakest of toe-holds. Cold winters with lots of snow, ice-covered spring fields and fence rows, and poor food supplies can lead to a season closure on these gallant little game birds.

And, it's easy for those bird hunters who have never hunted quail --the gentleman's game bird -- to take too many from a covey rise. Those who know better will take just one or two birds from a covey. A covey rise is one of the greatest experiences in the life of an ardent bird hunter.

Grouse & woodcock numbers remain fairly stable

The fact is these game birds are still here in huntable numbers but they are becoming increasing difficult to find. Many birds, like deer, have learned the better food sources are on private land rather than state land. The old axiom about finding the proper food supply and you'll find the birds still applies in many locations.

I know where grouse hold and the tag alder runs where woodcock leave chalky-colored droppings behind. My idea of hunting them means limiting myself to one killing shot per year. It's fairly easy to do with only one good shooting eye, and besides, if the bird isn't killed, chances are we can play at being the hunter and hunted another day, often with very similar results.

That pleases me very much.