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By Walt Young
sports@altoonamirror.com
During the winter of 2008, I had the good fortune to observe and photograph an amazingly friendly wild ruffed grouse.
My friend, Bill Carter, first encountered the remarkable bird near the gate to his hunting camp in Huntingdon County during deer season that fall. On subsequent visits to camp in December and January, the curious bird would literally come running most days when it heard him opening the gate.
Not only was this particular grouse apparently unafraid of humans, it actually seemed to enjoy human contact. That offered me one of the most remarkable opportunities of my career as an outdoor photographer, and I was able to take almost 2,000 amazing photos of that wonderful bird in every pose imaginable.
It became so familiar with Bill and I that some situations were simply comical. The bird would readily sit on Bill's arm and pose for photos. It also loved to perch on an open window of his truck and look at itself in a side mirror. I often lay on the ground to photograph the grouse as it walked around in front of me, but several times the mischievous bird circled behind me and snatched the knit cap off my head with its beak.
Shortly after I first wrote about those encounters, I received emails and phone calls from a dozen or more folks who had a similar experience with a "friendly" wild grouse. That sparked me to do some further research on these game birds, and I discovered that such behavior, although rare, is not uncommon in ruffed grouse. Usually, those grouse that appear unafraid or somewhat tame around humans tend to be young males. Those birds are also often curious of, or attracted to, certain types machinery like trucks, ATVs or riding lawnmowers. The grouse at Bill's camp certainly exhibited all those traits.
I never expected to have another opportunity to photograph a wild grouse so easily at such close range. But one Sunday morning I was in Bedford County to fish for trout with some friends from Massachusetts. We were parked along a farm lane in an open meadow not far from the stream.
As we were rigging our fly rods and pulling on our waders, one of my friends said, "What kind of bird is that?" I knew there was a bald eagle nest not far from our location, so I turned around almost expecting to see one of those magnificent birds soaring by. To my surprise, however, walking in the grass just three or four feet from us was a beautiful male ruffed grouse.
After explaining it was a ruffed grouse, the state bird of Pennsylvania, my other fishing companion, who was also a hunter, quickly realized how unusual this situation was. "I spent all of last October chasing those birds with my German shorthair, and down here they just walk up to you!" he exclaimed. I assured him that grouse are just as challenging for bird hunters in Pennsylvania as they are in New England.
I would have enjoyed spending the morning photographing another friendly grouse. My friends had traveled a long way to fish with me were eager to get on the stream, so we took a few quick closeups of the willing bird and headed to the water. Unfortunately, the grouse was not around when we returned at lunchtime, and I've never been lucky enough to encounter another friendly grouse.
The Game Commission is currently embarking on a long-term genetic study of Pennsylvania's grouse population. The primary objective of this research will be to learn if there are genetically distinct sub-populations of ruffed grouse around the state. The study will also seek to determine if grouse exhibiting "tame" behavior is linked to genetics, so the agency is asking anyone who encounters such a grouse to report the location of the bird by sending an email to grousecomments@pa.gov.
The report should include your name, phone number, date of the sighting, location of the encounter and a description of the grouse's behavior. The precise location of the bird is especially important so field staff can locate and capture the grouse and take a simple saliva sample with a mouth swab. The grouse will then be immediately released unharmed at the capture site.
"The more birds the Game Commission can sample, the better. That's why public participation is so important to this project," Game Commission grouse biologist Reina Tyler said. "Gaining a more complete understanding of the genetic diversity of Pennsylvania's grouse population is critical to ensure proper management of our beloved state bird."