Holiday weekend equals lots of company here.
We walk in the woods every day, but our guests look forward (are forced) to take a walk after a nice cookout.
Because of the extra traffic on the trail, we found a ruffled grouse nest. (we have been walking by her for days), she flew up in the excitement and we located the nest. I snuck back today to get pictures of her sitting on the nest. (she has 11 eggs)
Picture 1 (of three)
Nest at base of tree. Oh yeah, she blends!
This is a zoom/crop closeup of her on the nest. She is very alert at this stage, but almost looks like she is smiling.
She spooks off the nest easily, but does not go far. I caught a quick picture of the eggs.
Didn't want to disturb her too much.
We have found several of these nests in the past and they seem to all hatch. Hope you enjoy.
Very cool. The camoflage really works!
Good job Cparts...I would love to see one of these!! Thanks for the pics!
Thanks,
Just went for another walk. (she is not far from the trail) and she was sure keeping an eye on us!
Hubby wants to see one of those so bad! Easy to see how you could miss her!
Great pics cpart!
Thanks.
There does not seem to be as many of these in the woods now, as in past years. (we saw many feather piles in the snow this past winter with no tracks, hawks maybe?)
In the winter, they plow under the snow and will fly up if you get too near. Let me tell you, it can give you quite the rush to be walking calmly in the snow and have one of these birds fly up out of a spot only feet from you. It takes awhile for the heart to beat normal again. LOL.
In other seasons, they wait also until you are close, but maybe 20 feet or so. But it still will startle you pretty good.
I have seen them still a few times. Once a female, with little ones stood in the trail to block me from walking down the trail.
The best encounter was a male, that had been strutting around several females, walked out in front of my quad (red honda 4 wheeler) and seems to be dueling with the machine over the affections of the ladies.
They are quite an interesting bird.
Just an update. Saw fresh coyotte tracks last night on my walk near this nest and I was worried. But, she was still sitting tight to the eggs.
I will try to get a picture of the hatched nest, or the chicks if I can.
What amazing camouflage. Are Coyotes a problem?
Oh dear....
Yes coyotes are in the area, seen them quite often this spring in the daytime.
Ms R. Grouse is doing well. (quite a thunderstorm last night) but she seems ok.
This morning. (this was zoomed and cropped, but you can still see her pretty well)
She was on her nest yesterday morning, but in the evening this is what we saw.
Looks like 9 of the 11 eggs hatched, so she did pretty well.
Haven't seen them around yet. I hope to.
How cool!
That's great Cparts...I hope you get to see the little ones!
If I do, I will try to get a picture.
Not Bad!
Very interesting cparts, and what a camouflage. Hope you get to see the hatchling.
Hi cpartschick. What happened with the partially opened egg and the one that didn't appear to have any movement? I suppose with a ground dwelling bird, such as mother ruffled grouse, she'd be totally focussed on protecting the chicks that have hatched. Would she ever return to the nest to see if anything was happening with her other two eggs, or would it be a case of "nine out of eleven isn't bad. I'm outa here"? Have you had a look to see if they remained unhatched and have you sighted any of the chicks? Full of question, aren't I? (That was another question).
Good questions.
I counted the eggs when she was off the nest so that is how I know how many eggs hatched. There were 2 eggs still whole, but with a small hole in them. There was no movement and they were smelly. DH broke it a little and the chick was only half formed.
Maybe she opened the eggs to ck them and found them not to be viable.
We always wonder how many things we just walk by in the woods. I am sure there are many more nests, animals etc that blend so well that you never see them. As you can see by the pictures, she is really hard to see. When I would ck her every day, I would stand about 20 feet from her and squint and study the ground before I could see her looking at me. It is such a treat to find a nest and see that it produced young and was not too disturbed by us finding it.
What a pity about the two that didn't make it. Mind you, a ground dweller is particularly vulnerable and she did very well to have hatched nine. Any sightings of them?
Not yet. If I see them, it will be the mother acting hurt and going the other way. Then you ck where she came from and then see a clump of chicks.
Aren't birds just wonderful. Their courage is boundless. Any luck with sightings yet?
No not yet. DH said it is because I take the camera.
Yesterday we were cking some strange skid marks on the ground near the river. (maybe where the coyotes were chasing a deer) and we saw a movement in the over flow of the river.
We went to see and it was a beaver. I did not have the camera.
We saw that he was in shallow water and did not have a very good means of quick exit. I had the quad and raced back to the house and back with the camera. He was still there. I took several pictures of him, he slapped his tail a few times in anger, and then we left him in peace. Poor thing. Photo shoot.
Just goes to show that there are probably hundreds of times that you pass something in the woods and never know it is there.
Forgot to add a photo of "leave it to beaver".
Wow, a beaver! Have you seen them before? Were they at your place? Any sign of Mrs Grouse and the kids?
We had a problem with beaver a few years ago. They clear cut a large area by the river and the neighbors property too. Quite surreal to go for a walk (that you just took the week before) and see 25-30 large 12-20" through trees down, and all the smaller trees with them. I think the neigbor trapped some of them.
We have seen them and their sign after that, but no clear cutting, and just cutting the smaller trees. Every once in a while we see one along the river. (I posted more pictures on the wildlife forum)
Haven't seen Mrs grouse and the kids. Our property boarders other large sects of woods, so there is a lot of land to hide. She could even crouch down when we pass and we would never know.
Thanks cparschick. Of course, your'e right about Mrs Grouse. She's not going to williingly alert you to her or her kids presence, is she?
I'll check the wildlife forum.
By the way, winter has hit with a vengeance and there's been a lot of wind damage - houses deroofed, etc, 50km south of here. And we're FREEZING! The temperature has plummeted to about 12 degrees celsius (approx 60 degrees farenheit - Brrrrrr! Hope you feel sorry for us.
We have had storms here too. It has been very hot and humid and then the storm cools it off. I am glad to be inside during these storms. I wonder how the birds hang on to a tree.
Sorry, I love 60' weather. I throw on a hoodie and I am loving it. It is cooler outside this morning and I have all the windows open and it has cooled the house to 65'. I hope to keep some of that cool today.
