Dan Dessecker leads a webinar on Ruffed Grouse Ecology and Habitat Management
Field Dressing or Cleaning A Grouse - Video
Easiest way to clean a partridge (Ruffed Grouse). We had an awesome Trail Lunch of Garlic Fried Ruffed Grouse.
It's Only Natural: Ruffed grouse overcome winter challenges
by Mary Holland
Dispersal, finding food, and survival on their own are three of the main challenges that ruffed grouse, also known as partridge, face every fall and winter. The manner in which they confront each of these tasks proves ruffed grouse to be one of the most adaptive species of overwintering Massachusetts birds.
The challenge of dispersing falls to the young of the year. By the time they are a little over four months old, grouse begin leaving their brood. Males are usually the first to leave, perhaps because they have a more rigorous search ahead of them. It is very important that they find a territory to claim before winter, as research indicates that males with established territories are the most successful at attracting females in the spring. Their quest is not a simple one. They must find an area that has not already been claimed by an older male, plus one that is suitable for winter survival (plenty of food) as well as spring drumming (a courtship ritual that males perform by beating their wings, often while standing on a log).
This is a formidable task, and it is not unusual for a young male grouse to return to its brood several times before finding an appropriate territory for itself.
Young females also are searching for territories, especially those with good nesting cover. Males tend to travel about 250 yards per day, while females wander roughly 500 yards at a time. Males usually travel one to two miles before finding an appropriate area, while females have been known to travel up to 10 miles (but usually less).
Finding food during the fall usually isn't very difficult–acorns, mushrooms and berries are abundant. But eventually grouse are forced to switch their diet from mostly fruits and nuts, which are either gone or buried by snow, to buds. By October or November, most grouse have returned to trees as the main source of their diet. Aspen buds and catkins (flower buds) of hazel, alder, and birch sustain them through the winter. Because a grouse stores very little fat, it must eat daily during the colder months. It confines its exposure to predators by rapidly feeding for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day, storing the food in its crop, and digesting it later, under cover.
Read the rest of the Harvard Press article for more information
Dispersal, finding food, and survival on their own are three of the main challenges that ruffed grouse, also known as partridge, face every fall and winter. The manner in which they confront each of these tasks proves ruffed grouse to be one of the most adaptive species of overwintering Massachusetts birds.
The challenge of dispersing falls to the young of the year. By the time they are a little over four months old, grouse begin leaving their brood. Males are usually the first to leave, perhaps because they have a more rigorous search ahead of them. It is very important that they find a territory to claim before winter, as research indicates that males with established territories are the most successful at attracting females in the spring. Their quest is not a simple one. They must find an area that has not already been claimed by an older male, plus one that is suitable for winter survival (plenty of food) as well as spring drumming (a courtship ritual that males perform by beating their wings, often while standing on a log).
This is a formidable task, and it is not unusual for a young male grouse to return to its brood several times before finding an appropriate territory for itself.
Young females also are searching for territories, especially those with good nesting cover. Males tend to travel about 250 yards per day, while females wander roughly 500 yards at a time. Males usually travel one to two miles before finding an appropriate area, while females have been known to travel up to 10 miles (but usually less).
Finding food during the fall usually isn't very difficult–acorns, mushrooms and berries are abundant. But eventually grouse are forced to switch their diet from mostly fruits and nuts, which are either gone or buried by snow, to buds. By October or November, most grouse have returned to trees as the main source of their diet. Aspen buds and catkins (flower buds) of hazel, alder, and birch sustain them through the winter. Because a grouse stores very little fat, it must eat daily during the colder months. It confines its exposure to predators by rapidly feeding for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day, storing the food in its crop, and digesting it later, under cover.
Read the rest of the Harvard Press article for more information
Ruffed Grouse Society Looking for Volunteers to Improve Grouse and Woodcock Habitat In PA
The Ruffed Grouse Society is looking for hunters willing to volunteer half a day to help improve habitat for grouse, woodcock, and wildlife needing young trees habitat.
The habitat work this fall consists of hand planting gray dogwood in a streamside zone on Hancock Forest lands near Clermont in southern McKean County.
The tentative planting days are:
- Tuesday, 11/13
- Thursday, 11/15
- Friday, 11/16
- Sunday, 11/18
- Wednesday, 11/21
- Friday, 11/23
- Saturday, 11/24
- Sunday, 11/25
Contact Mary Hosmer at 814-512-2101 if you plant to help so the right number of seedlings and hand planters are available on site.
Hunters have always been the first conservationists. Here is yet another opportunity to give back to the hunting heritage.
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The Ruffed Grouse Society was founded in 1961 to promote and increase awareness of young forest management and to maintain suitable habitat that supports healthy populations of ruffed grouse, woodcock, deer and many songbird species that depend on forest diversity to survive and prosper.
Tower MN Ruffed Grouse Hunt - 9/22/2012
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| Tina With Her First Two Grouse For 2012 - Tower MN |
I arrived home from my work trip at 10pm on Friday night and was on the road by 7am Saturday so that I could pick up Tina at the trainer. She had been at the kennel for a month so that they could road her while I was gone. Having your dog not get any exercise for three weeks right before the start of the season is not the best way to set yourself up for success. She was lean and mean. She had lost four lbs overall. I’m sure she lost more fat than that and put on some muscle as she was looking ripped. They shaved her so that helped the look also.
I picked up my dad in Ely and dropped back down to the Tower area. We have hunted a few spots in this area on and off for 10 years. We started at a set of trails that has gone from being prime cover to being on the old side of productive. There has been some new clear cutting in the area so hopefully we will see a rebound in the future. Tina and I started on a trail that heads downhill to some low areas. With it being so dry this year I thought that the birds might be lower where there might be some dampness. About 5 minutes into the trail we came across some blowdowns which isn’t all that unusual in the area except that there usually is a group of deer hunters that have stands at the bottom of the trail and they tend to keep the trails open. Perhaps they have given up on the area. I’ve been seeing fewer deer and more wolves each year...
As we got to the fist set of blowdowns Tina was working off to the left and her bell went silent and the beeper came on. Once I got an approximate location I turned off the beeper and headed into the woods. Not much of the cover had come down yet so it was tough to get to her point and the grouse didn’t stick around for me. Still, getting the first flush 10 min into the hunt isn’t too bad.
We continued down the trail and in just a few minutes Tina went back on point. She was pointing right in the middle of the trail. As I approached two birds flushed too low to get off a safe shot and by the time they rose they were headed into the cover. While I enjoy seeing birds it is nice to be able to reward the dog and myself by getting to take a shot once in a while. Luckily the next bird wasn’t quite as skilled with its escape. Tina made a nice point and the grouse held its spot long enough for me to make a decent approach and was able to finish the job with a single shot. At the shot another grouse got up a bit deeper into the cover but I was unable to get off a shot.
A bit farther down the trail a grouse got me in the classic I’ll wait until he is climbing over the blowdown before I flush maneuver. Tina held point but the bird was trickier than either of us.
We made it to the end of the trail but didn’t end up seeing any birds in the damper areas like I thought we would.
On the way back to the truck Tina made a wide cast and I was day dreaming when a grouse flushed as I walked past it on the trail. The flush gave my heart a jump start but I was able to swing around and get off three shots. This ended up being one of the very few times that I have hit a bird after the second shot. Usually the third shot just ends up being a wasted shot but this time I think it took me until the third shot to collect myself and actually concentrate on the shot.
In under two hours we saw seven birds and got two. One advantage to having the blowdowns is that a fair number of hunters used to road hunt that small stretch and now it isn’t getting as much pressure.
We loaded up and headed to another spot. We hunted this spot right before Christmas last year and about five minutes into our hunt a wolf came right up the trail towards us. I shouted at it and it left the trail but I thought it best to pull the plug on hunting that spot for that day.
We ended up only getting one point along this trail but a bow hunter that we saw said that he had been seeing grouse in the area so I’m sure we will continue to try it.
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