this is the third time in 31 years a grouse has befriended us. it always starts out with the 4-wheeler idling, it's always a male, he must think were drumming. I take some corn kernels and throw him some, he starts out at about 12 feet away, week later he's 8 feet, week later 4 feet away. when he's 2 feet away I lay flat on the ground and talk and coo softly. he finally starts to eat out of my hand. Now I just kneel down and he comes to my hand. The last one we had here would hold on to my 3 year old grand-daughters glove and they would walk down the logging trail. he would also sit on my pedal bike when I came out of the woods from bowhunting. I cut the wood in chunks in the wood's, every time I would take a chunk to the trailer he would walk right with me. It's a very neat thing to be close to nature. Anyone else have experiences like these ??

That is very cool !

I have wild turkeys that do much the same, except I haven't worked in trying to feed them that close. They do, however, see me with the birdseed bucket and come trotting up, those tails bouncing in tune to their stride .

Very clear beautiful photos, too , of your pretty feathered friend ! Grouse are so pretty in their feather designs.

I have ruffed grouse visit here , but I cant get them to come close to seed or grain at all. They are as wild and wary as can be. Maybe I should start the four wheeler and let it idle

Very nice job on the pictures whiteotter 55!!!

This is "Sammy the Sea Gull" he rides outside my wheelhouse and waits for me or the crew to feed him/her... (likes corn chips best!)








,.,.

Like Sharon i have grouse that come around pretty close but none accept feed and none get that close, ruffs that is. There are places out and about that hold spruce grouse and those I can get within an arms length but they do not take any feed either. At this time the sprucies here are non existent.

Very cool, I envy your touch with them.

Osky

Nice!

Most guys would have blasted it right from the wheeler, given the chance.

Once caught a juvinal commorant in a flounder gill the net. Carefully released it but it was two weak to fly. Put it behind the boat console and it put its wing over its head and went to sleep. Several hours later when returning to fish house to weigh in our catch, we put the little commorant on the bow of the boat like a hood ornament. It was a hit and lots of fishermen and workers observed it. It even got a name. Five minutes later a big black lab ate it.

MMMMM,cornfed grouse.

That's awesome, lol good thing you're not fattening it up! Pretty bird, it would be cool to see them so close

From what I can see of the 2 rear middle tail feathers, they appear barred not solid which is a female.

Over the years I've seen 2 grouse that became very tame. The last one was the most tame. In the fall when I was hauling leaves with a trailer behind my 4 wheeler he'd come flying in and land on my wheeler then he would follow me to the back of the trailer clucking away and kind of in be the way so I would pull the tarp full of leaves off and dump them on him. He'd come out of the pile shaking the leaves out of his feathers. Later in the winter when I was cutting firewood same thing, he'd come flying in out of the trees as soon as he heard my wheeler, he would get on the log as I was sawing it within a foot of my chain saw. I was always afraid he would peck at the chain while I was sawing and be decapitated. I actually had tom shoo him over so I could cut the next log.

it's a male for sure, just don't have the right view on the picture, bars are solid when you see him from the top view

That's cool they come and hang out,

we had one a few years ago, As soon as you start the the fourwheeler he would come flying and sit right on the fourwheeler.He was around for about two years.

That’s cool!

I am curious all you folks seem to have a 4 wheeler somehow involved. What brand do you have? I'm curious if a certain manufacturer is producing an engine that gives out a particular vibration, sound, whatever that attracts them and somehow alleviates their fear of man?

Osky

had one on a log job that would show up as soon as you started the skidder and would follow it till you parked it for the day.

That's awsome

We call our grouse Petey, second one that we have had,does he try to fight with you this one in the spring and summer tried to fight with us.we have a Honda and use it daily to do chores in summer,I think the put,put,put of the Honda sounds like a grouse drumming to them and they come to it.

I've had the same experience with a Yamaha.

How long did they befriend you guys?

This one made it through three fall seasons before it met it unknown demise.

My only experience was with a male grouse, in the dark one morning while on the trap line. I drove my truck down a tractor path by the woods and saw I had a coyote in a trap. I hopped out of the truck and got things around, looked up and there is a grouse in full strut standing right by me. My buddy and I laughed about it and took some pictures before preceding to take care of the coyote.
That grouse followed us right to the trap circle and seemed totally unconcerned about the coyote, even though he was flipping out doing cartwheels and growling at us.
Took care of the coyote with a .22 and as he was flopping, the grouse was strutting around him. I have a picture somewhere of the grouse standing with both feet in a pool of blood right next to the coyotes head.
We loaded things up, hopped in the truck and off we went. That grouse ran as fast as he could to keep up with the truck.

We both figured he wasn't going to live very long after that. Something was going to kill him............like a friendly hawk, owl, cat, fox, coyote, etc.