A Bird in the Hand ...

Back in March of this year I had a couple of postings of a "Roadside Grouse" that would wait along Joyce Road and pose for pictures. Soon after I posted the story on the grouse I stopped seeing the bird and thought it had met with an accident. Yesterday, my son Chuck and his fiancée, Nikki, returned to our house after a walk and told us of being attacked by a grouse. After showing us pictures of the grouse attack my first thought was the "Roadside Grouse".

This morning I proceeded to look for the "attack" grouse in the area where it was last seen. After about 45 minutes of searching I detected some movement in a brushy area. To my surprise, a grouse came out of the brush and started walking towards me.



At first the grouse started to circle me and stayed 10 to 15 feet away. Within a few minutes the grouse was only a couple of feet away and I had to put my camera in macro close-up mode to take pictures.



For the next hour the grouse would charge and peck at me in some sort of mock battle. I played along with the fight and the more I charged the grouse, the closer it got. A photo of the grouse standing on my leg.



At one point I was able to catch and hold the grouse. I had assumed the grouse would run away after being held, but it returned for more fighting and was caught three more times.



After an hour of "grouse fighting" I got up and started to walk back to our house. The grouse followed me for the next couple hundred feet until I started to walk faster. Several hours later I returned to the same spot with our son Matt and his girlfriend, the grouse was ready for more "fun and games".

Why did the grouse cross the road?

Q. Why did the grouse cross the road?
A. To get to the other side of the road.

We were driving on Joyce Road, between our barn property and the cabin, when we spotted this grouse standing in the road.



After some hesitation, the grouse slowly walked across the road.




The grouse may have been looking for new territory (or lost) because all it found on the other side of the road was a large pond. After a short walk along the edge of the pond, the grouse had to fly across it.

Roadside Grouse

At first I thought it was just luck and good timing that allowed me to get some close-up pictures of a grouse but now I think the grouse is just friendly. I have narrowed down the location of the grouse and the grouse will run down to the edge of the road and pose for pictures each time I drive by.

Roadside Grouse

For the second time within a couple of weeks I was able to photograph a grouse close up.



This grouse must be nesting in the area since it is within 50 yards of the last grouse sighting.

Roadside Grouse

Late in the evening as I drove along Joyce Road I spotted some movement near the ditch. I was able to get a couple of photos of this grouse as it was looking for a roosting location.

Grouse Chicks

As a followup to the May 22nd post of a Grouse Nest that Jason Abell found, I returned to the nest today and retrieved the time lapse camera that had filmed the nest for the past week. The camera took about 4,000 photo before it ran out of memory, but that was enough to record the event of the grouse chicks hatching.

May 26th, 10:51AM - None of the eggs have hatched.



May 26th, 12:05PM - The grouse is back sitting on the eggs.



May 26th, 2:14PM - The first chick appears.



May 26th, 3:07PM - The chick is back under the mother grouse and an empty egg shell is seen.



May 26th, 4:00PM - Three chicks next to the mother grouse.



May 27th, 9:01AM - A heavy rain overnight but the grouse hatched at least 9 chicks.



May 27th, 9:35AM - Mother grouse and the chicks leave the nest and don't return. In less than a day after hatching the grouse chicks are out of the nest.

Grouse Nest

Jason Abell managed to locate a grouse nest on his farm while fixing fences and shared the location with me. Unlike the geese on our pond, grouse are harder to find and even harder to photograph.



I have placed an automatic camera about 4 feet from the grouse nest and will try to get some photos of a nesting grouse and maybe some photos of the chicks.