What is it? Spruce Grouse? Roughed Grouse? Partridge?

[tiriaq]

January 2015. One of three bucks that I fed that winter; he was the biggest. 12 in the herd, all but one fawn made it through the winter. Note how nice and rectangular his body is. Found one of his sheds in the lilacs.
The photo up above with the grouse, doe and her fawns is this year. She had twins the year before; the yearling doe comes regularly, the little buck is gone.
The photos were taken from my back door.

 

[BC30cal]

This is what I always suspected, any grouse I've dressed out with darker meat have been larger in size due to age. So it makes sense that they would see more flight time and muscle developement and have more of a dark meat than the lighter meat of the younger birds.

Butcherbill;
Good morning to you, I trust this finds you well and warm enough on a cool Okanagan morning.

Speaking broadly and in my experience only - of course - if the bird's meat is reddish at all then it's not a ruffer as they're meat is tan for lack of a better descriptor.

Also I believe that the color of the meat changes somewhat with diet - so birds from the Stikine were a bit different than the ones from the Similkameen or Kettle/Christian for instance.

As the season wears on, Blues and Sprucers will eat more pine needles and that can often lead to them tasting like they've been marinated in Vick's Vapo-Rub. A real simple fix for that is to take the filleted breasts and legs - we kept the legs - and put them into a Ziplock bag with your favorite oil and vinegar salad dressing for a couple days. We'd pick up whatever of that type was on sale - sun dried tomato and balsamic was a family favorite - just for that. Put the meat into the bag and throw it into the fridge for a couple days for a much milder, more tender version of a meal!

I got that idea by the way from a chap who was trying to make snow goose fillets better table fare.

Anyway we don't shoot grouse much anymore as the populations are down in the south valley the last few years. We figure to leave them for the kids and new hunters to practice on. We used to hunt them though - our girls back in the day when we were up on the mountain behind the house looking for firewood and food.

We'd not seen any blues the last couple of seasons and were happy to see them on both sides of the valley this past fall. These two didn't want to leave the road for some reason - as you can sorta hear, we herded them for 3 minutes on the clock before I remembered we had the technology to video the event for posterity!

Anyway to all the chicken hunters out there, may this winter be kind to them so they're around next fall. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

Dwayne

 

[Bland]

Do not get to see many blues around here but they are around. It has been years since I nailed one. My first one I did not know what I had until I got it home and my father-in-law explained things. I was at your stage of the game at that time. He sent me out for more, no luck. With Ruffed grouse you can tell gender by their tail feathers. The female's tail feathers are not barred in the middle. The spruce hens seem to vary in colouration more so than ruffed grouse. They get darker the closer to the coast you venture. This just a personal observation. Has anyone else observed this, strictly anecdotal observation on my part??

Well I'm in the "Failers" category but I am only 3 years hunting and as such I'm not going to mind chitting the bed on my bird identification particularly. Considering that the emphasis on the hunter exam was "It is illegal..." I am sure that I'll have my bird identification dialled in within 5 years.

 

[BC30cal]

Bland;
Top of the morning - coolish morning at that - to you sir, I hope the firewood supply is holding out well for you this fine, bright Saturday.

On your coloration question, we've noticed that spruce hens vary enough that sometimes even through reasonably good binos we're almost fooled into thinking the lighter ones are ruffers. The ones up the Stikine were darker than the locals too I want to say, but it was '87 when I was up there last - my goodness that's 3 decades I now realize.

I can't recall if they vary in any predictable pattern though - so if all the Similkameen ones will be more or less dark than the ones over to the Kettle or into the Kootenays - sorry.

Merry Christmas to you and yours and all the best in 2018 too.

Dwayne

 

[Butcherbill]

Those are all spruce grouse... one is a hen.

I know you know your stuff hoyt, but I have to say the one I think is a ruff in the group looked identical to the fifth and final one I got on my way down the fsr I was on and it was definitely a ruffie. What makes you think it was a spruce hen? The ones I've seen have been nowhere near as brown/grey as that one, more black on the backside as well.

On the topic of meat color I was looking back through some pics, one group of five ruffies I got and they were definitely ruffed grouse. The smaller young birds all had lighter meat, the bigger older birds were all varying shades of darker meat.

 

[Superbrad]

I have likely shot my weight 5 times over in ruffies...... never seen one with reddish meat....

 

[kamlooky]

Lots of pros and kawns.
Me?
One growzie gits to live 'nudder day.

Make sure to pull the feathers out the pellet holes as they taste like chit.

Nudder way of dewn them is to cut them up into small mini stew pieces.
Fry them up and make a sauce like you would find in a meat pie.
Sewperbly skrumpshus.
Cream of chicken zewp oar the same chef bouy arrdee cheekun ahh lah king.

Add some peas, cubed chickun and such.
Fruck...................now eye'm derwl'in.

Soak them old ruffies in milk, rosemary and tyme in the fridge over night.
This will fix'im up bono.

Keep them photos coming folks.

 

['Boo]

My wife makes the worlds best chicken cacciatore using chicken backs along with grouse pieces. If you use enough crushed chilies even a late season spruce grouse tastes good. ......

 

[hoytcanon]

I know you know your stuff hoyt, but I have to say the one I think is a ruff in the group looked identical to the fifth and final one I got on my way down the fsr I was on and it was definitely a ruffie. What makes you think it was a spruce hen? The ones I've seen have been nowhere near as brown/grey as that one, more black on the backside as well.

On the topic of meat color I was looking back through some pics, one group of five ruffies I got and they were definitely ruffed grouse. The smaller young birds all had lighter meat, the bigger older birds were all varying shades of darker meat.

From left to right;

Ruffed grouse, spruce hen, spruce hen...

When you know what you are looking at, they don't look anything alike.

 

[hoytcanon]

And 1 ruffed 3 less lucky spruce grouse.

From left to right;

Spruce hen, adult male spruce grouse, jeuvenile male spruce grouse, jeuvenile male spruce grouse.

 

[Butcherbill]

From left to right;

Ruffed grouse, spruce hen, spruce hen...

When you know what you are looking at, they don't look anything alike.

Explain what visually makes you say that, I'm serious. I want to know, they all looked the same.

 

[hoytcanon]

Explain what visually makes you say that, I'm serious. I want to know, they all looked the same.

The colouration and markings are completely different, but for the novice, look at the tail, not only are the tip markings different, but the shape is different, the ruffed grouse has a longer tail, the spruce grouse has a shorter tail that comes to a point when they are at rest... spruce grouse tails are black tipped, sometimes with brown or buff at the very tips, ruffed grouse have a black "banded" tail (see the picture in the post below this one, all are ruffed grouse). The feet are also a good indicator, spruce grouse feet are typically feathered right to the knuckles whereas ruffed grouse feet are generally bare.

In the tailgate picture you have one ruffed grouse and two spruce grouse hens. In the picture with the four birds on the ground, they are all spruce grouse.

 

[redryder]

A limit of Ruffies

 

[Butcherbill]

Thanks for the explanation hoyt, I will take a closer look at them next season. I've noticed the difference in tail shape on the spruce grouse while resting and can see what you mean by how far down the feathering on the feet is. Will definitely look at that more closely next year, cheers and Merry Christmas!

 

[Bland]

I have likely shot my weight 5 times over in ruffies...... never seen one with reddish meat....

First off Merry Christmas to everyone. My son arrived yesterday as a surprise to the better half so a very happy household this morn. I was very surprised last season when I dressed out a ruffie alongside some spruce hens and the meat was almost the same colour. First and only time this has occurred for me. I thought back and had shot them all in the same area. It is a real spruce swamp and the ruffle's crop was full of spruce needles. Now having taken many grouse from spruce swamps before and never observed this before or since it was certainly intriguing. Still waiting to see if this was a one off or not.

Excellent explanation Hoyt, don't imagine you get to see too many Blues in your hunting area?

 

[hoytcanon]

Excellent explanation Hoyt, don't imagine you get to see too many Blues in your hunting area?

No blues here....we hunt mostly ruffed, spruce and sharptail grouse... wild pheasants in some locales.

Here is a picture of the pooch with a limit of sharpies... and a tailgate shot of a typical mixed bag... and one where I am standing with four (Butcherbill, can you make out what these four are?).

 

[Butcherbill]

Correct me if I'm wrong Hoyt, from left to right it looks to me like two spruce a ruffie and I think a third spruce but it's hard to see the tail. Guessing it's a spruce from the pattern of the chest feathers.

Good looking bunch of birds you guys got!

 

[colombe]

You guys have it all WRONG.

THIS BIRD IS A TMMINS, ONTARIO SHORT TAIL PHEASANT.

DELICIOUS.

 

[Superbrad]

Correct me if I'm wrong Hoyt, from left to right it looks to me like two spruce a ruffie and I think a third spruce but it's hard to see the tail. Guessing it's a spruce from the pattern of the chest feathers.

Good looking bunch of birds you guys got!

Agree on all counts...... except fourth bird is either a spruce or ruffie hen...... knowing hoyt’s OCD, I will guess ruffie.....

 

[trebor2880]

It seems that most people wait till they've got an impressive bunch of birds to take home and show off, before cleaning them. Am I the only one that cleans them on the spot, immediately after the kill?