Grousing around - insanity?

Grouse hunting - is there a better way to spend a beautiful Autumn morning? I don't think so.
I hate to admit it but there is a Grouse that has eluded me on a regular basis. I know where he'll be, I know where he'll go and every time he manages to escape...

In a thicket, just up from the creek is the home of a Grouse that manages to outwit me on three consecutive hunts. I know right where he'll be. I even hear him rustling in the dry leaves - yet he is invisible until I move in... then he erupts into flight and escaping before I can even bring my rifle to my shoulder.

As I've written before, Grouse are hunting's equivalent of Bluegill fishing. Generally easy to add to the game bag and mighty tasty table fare. For some reason this one has proven very slippery. Perhaps after years of culling the stupid Grouse a super Grouse has evolved... Perhaps this one takes pleasure in my frustration, knowing that I'll come back, scan the area for relentlessly, eventually conclude he's not there and then have him thunder into the sky within feet of my muzzle and zig zags through the forest to the next hide, to which I follow him and repeat the strategy only to suffer the same result...

Honestly, I enjoy every second of it, even though it means admitting that I've been outsmarted by a creature with a brain the size of a pea. Yesterday was no exception and I fell for it again, hook, line and sinker. I can imagine him blogging about the hunter he's outwitted on at least three occasions... and how he'll do it again.

I'll be back there in a week to duel with him again. If you see a picture of him in the frying pan and some flies made of his feathers you'll know I won. If not, he's won again...


Actually, anytime I'm in the woods with 'my favorite Marlin' (model 39A Mountie) is a good day - even when the Grouse elude me... When the game is scarce or elusive I can always plink, which is nearly as much fun. This Alder leaf took three shots, offhand and was the only trophy I bagged this day. Not Boone and Crocket nor worth field dressing but was part of another happy memory of another happy day in the field with my Marlin.

Insanity = Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.