This Saturday (Oct. 25) marks the opening season for pheasants and cottontail rabbits. Every year at this time upland hunters face the same problem as to where to hunt in Lehigh County. The best advice is to head west into Berks County. Here's why:

The PGC will release 270 pheasants during the week of Oct. 22-24; another 270 during the week of Oct. 29-31; 180 for the week of Nov. 5-7; 80 for Nov. 12-14; and 90 for Nov. 19-21 for a total of 1,110 birds. And a good majority of these birds will go to SGL No. 205, which means there will be lots of hunting pressure there.

In comparison, Berks County will get a total of 6,300 pheasants planted in SGL Nos. 106, 182 and 280, Blue Marsh Lake area, Ontelaunee Lake land and Reading Anthracite property. This doesn't take into account the Safety Zone and Farm-Game Co-op lands that are abundant on these predominately Mennonite owned farmlands.

Insofar as Lehigh County is concerned, sportsmen may want to check the PGC's website under the icon "Chronic Wasting Disease" and then click on the "State Game Lands Maps" icon after which clicking on State Game Lands Mapping notation will bring up the "hunter access properties" maps showing approximately where these lands are located.

In Lehigh County there are 17 hunter access properties and five Safety Zone properties, says Travis Lau, PGC media information officer, on which hunting is allowed. But hunters are advised to seek hunting permission if the landowner can be identified and located.

Last weekend saw the start of the grouse and squirrel seasons.

As for squirrels, they're everywhere, but few hunters pursue them as their sweet meat makes good table fare since they're predominately nut eaters. And it's a great time to take a youth hunter along, as there will always be some shooting action.

If you do score on a few bushy-tails, save the tails and send them to Mepps, the fishing lure company, who uses the tails for skirt dressing on their famed spinning lures and will either trade tails for lures or pay cash (www.mepps.com)

Our majestic state bird is unfortunately not so plentiful. Grouse numbers are down in certain areas of the commonwealth. According to Lisa Williams, PGC grouse and woodcock biologist, the flush rates are 36 percent below the long term average in the southeast region of the state and 20 percent below the LTA in the northeast. Only the northcentral region showed a seven percent increase above the LTA.

In her report for the 2014 season, Williams says she is predicting a more modest season than last year. It says "2014 has been called the 'summer that wasn't' and I'm afraid that the cool, wet weather and flooding of this spring and summer may have taken a toll on grouse production. Of course there will be birds out there, but hunters will need to really hone in on areas with good food and cover.

"The PGC Grouse Summer Sighting Survey reinforces my caution about the coming season. Brood observations for June and July are down 22 percent and 33 percent.

Individual grouse sightings for June and July are down 12 percent and 18 percent compared to 2013. August sightings were also reduced in 2014. Statewide, brood sightings were down 21 percent compared to last summer and total grouse sightings are down 6 percent for 2014. So, my preliminary forecast is for an average to slightly below-average 2014-2015 grouse season."

During these small game season openers, the woodlands will have to be shared with the opening of the one-week antlerless deer muzzleloader-hunting season for hunters with a muzzleloader tag. These sportsmen may use both flintlock and inline muzzleloaders, the latter of which remains a sore subject, as it should be only for flintlocks during this early season and inline's for the latter season after the Christmas holiday.

The reasoning is that inline shooters have longer-range ability at a time when it's needed most as deer have been chased, shot at and often out of range of a flintlock rifle that is mandated at that time.