What’s that sound in Northwoods?

Just got back from another great bwca trip. Went in a different area this time....Stuart river up to star art, Agnes, and iron, lakes if your familiar. Anyway, along the long portages was a drumming sound all the time. Never heard it before and didn’t hear it from my camps. Only heard it on long portages through higher, dryer woods. It would start slow and then speed up to almost a continuous sound? Kinda hard to tell distance as it was a low sound.

I’m assuming a bird of some kind? Don’t now much about the critters up there but it’s a lot of y’all s stomping grounds. First time I’ve ever heard it. Also, this is the earliest trip I’ve taken and usually go in late summer or fall. I had planned to be inside the bwca when walleye season opened but that fell through. Thanks a lot corona. Thanks for clearing up the mystery bird?......
Shane

Ruffed grouse drumming?

Bigfoot wood knocking for sure !
Lucky you got back alive to tell the story

Love hearing ruffed grouse ...look forward to hearing them every spring.

This!!!!!^^^

We are lucky to see one a month around here now. Just several years ago we had lots of them????.....jk

This is what it is . It been many years ago I use to hear them back in MA now here in IA I only hear them once many years ago. Miss that sound and the bird. Fun bird to hunt .

Bingo. That’s it. Now I wish I’d tried to find one. I’d liked to have seen that and maybe a picture. I’ll know next year. Thanks again......shane

Pig Castrater getting ready to castrate

I hear them drumming at my camp when I’m hunting spring turkey. Six or eight or more in the morning is not uncommon. I’ve often tried to sneak up on them to get a picture or maybe even a video of them drumming. So far I have been unsuccessful. They hear or see me coming and disappear.

They have a "drumming log". If you go looking where you here them, look for a log with a bunch of Grouse droppings, Then hide and wait.

Putting the sneak on grouse doesn't work worth a hoot! I've tried it time and again. They also have a real ventriloquist type quality to the sound, it is hard to pinpoint just where the buggers actually are drumming. The logs are very obvious though.....droppings galore, as well as having a worn spot where Mr. Grouse stands. I've had a couple set up shop close to the road and were watchable from the vehicle .

Love hunting ruffies!! They're not hard to kill and tasty too.

I'm lucky enough to live where that sound goes on all day long for at least a month.

Maybe not hard to kill in your neck of the woods rvsask. I’ve plinked those fools hens sitting along trails with a .22 for camp supper while moose hunting in Canada.

Here in PA you are lucky to get a shot at them. They will often sit tight and explode at your feet, or worse yet, from the branches over your head, and by the time you recover they are out of range or have put a tree or a bush between you and them.

We stack them up on the edge of trail like you speak of. Heck, I even whacked one of the back of the head with a hatchet along the road once as I didn't have a firearm with me.
Amazing how human pressure can change animal behaviour.

Sounds like you are hearing some sort of grouse. Where I am it would be a blue grouse.

On a similar subject, has anyone else ever noticed what I would describe as a "60 cycle hum" while in or near the arctic?

The first spring I was in Alaska I kept hearing this.It drove me nuts for weeks. It sounded like someone was bouncing a basketball but the nearest person was 75 miles away. Finally I stalked the noise and found the grouse !

I have noticed that too but only in the winter. It's as though silence actually makes a noise

Coukd be the sound of your blood rushing through your veins.

Years ago a friend told me she heard that sound off in the woods. She was wondering why someone was trying to start their generator half the day and it not starting up.

Grouse are difficult to sneak up on . So cool to find one and enjoy their show.

Yes I have thought that too.............or my arteries slamming shut

I burn wood in a boiler to heat my house so every spring I make the next winter's supply. It's crazy how many grouse I've brought right up to my location by running the chainsaw.

It’s tinnitus.