WY Bird hunters beware of new grouse hunting regulations starting Sept. 1 2014

With the September 1 opener for upland game right around the corner, bird hunters are alerted there are some significant changes in the hunting regulations for this fall.

Beginning September 1 the combined daily bag limit and possession limit for blue and ruffed grouse has been eliminated and upland game bird hunters will be allowed to take a daily bag limit of three blue grouse and a daily bag limit of three ruffed grouse. The possession limit for each species will be nine.

Now that hunters are allowed to take separate daily bag limits of blue grouse, ruffed grouse, chukar partridge, gray (Hungarian) partridge or sharp-tailed grouse, hunters will need to retain evidence of species on all game birds in their possession while in the field.  The new regulation states that, excluding pheasants, one fully-feathered wing shall remain naturally attached to the carcass of ANY upland game bird in the field and during transportation. Hunters have always had to retain evidence of sex and species on each pheasant harvested by having the feathered head, feathered wing or foot naturally attached to the carcass of a pheasant while in the field and during transportation.

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Artist wins Wyoming Game and Fish Department's annual Conservation Stamp Art competition with a Ruffed Grouse painting

by Dan Sanderson-Staff Writer

An image of ruffed grouse, plucking berries off of trees over the AuSable River, has garnered a national award for a Grayling wildlife artist and downtown gallery owner.

Kim Diment won first place in the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Conservation Stamp Art competition for a painting she did of ruffed grouse called "Dine and Dash."

Diment learned that the ruffed grouse was the animal for the 2014 Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Conservation Stamp Art competition while she was in the state last fall for a workshop.

The Susan Kathleen Black Workshop and Arts Conference hosts between 50 to 150 plein air artists, who paint out in the field, every year. Black was a nature artist. The workshop was founded by Black's husband, Jim Parkman, as tribute to Black after she died from cancer. The workshop is a means to support a foundation and other efforts  to advance art education in Black's honor.

"It's a beautiful location along with being an area, where you can do a lot of photography if you want to do that because there are animals everywhere and great things to photograph," Diment said.

After the workshop, Diment was taking reference photos of animals in the Grand Teton National Park, when she captured a photo of a family of ruffed grouse. A friend informed her that ruffed grouse was selected as the subject matter for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Conservation Stamp Art competition.

Ironically, the image Diment used for the winning painting was captured outside her home art studio, overlooking the AuSable River. Oak, hawthorn trees  and wild crab apple trees are located on the banks of the river and the surrounding property.

"The ruffed grouse keep coming in to feed as long as the berries are there," Diment said.

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