Catch and release grouse

[HeadDamage]

Helping a friend set up his elk camp in 406 (Alberta) yesterday and one of our party catches a grouse by hand, day early for legal grouse hunting so it was released unharmed.

[/url]IMG-20210907-WA0000 by A H, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[FarmerDanz]

Only time I ever got close enough to touch them, they had chicks to protect.

 

[Brutus]

Is this a willow ptarmigan in summer plumage or hen Franklin's grouse ??

 

[Red_Mist]

That grouse looks very content !

 

[silver 55]

I live near a creek and I will get a ruffed grouse show up in my yard every fall. Some years they flush wild, some arent that bad, and some will let you get within a few feet.

 

[billdick]

I'd stay still and let her catch me too.

 

[Archer Sam]

There is a hen at our camp that will fly along with you when on the 4 wheeler. She will land beside or ahead of where you are and walk back and forth beside you. seems pretty tame for how often we are there.

 

[M1-Garand]

A few years ago there was one at the handgun range while I was shooting, not scared at all, almost behaved like a chicken in a farm yard.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

My neighbor made the local paper.

https://www.mountainviewtoday.ca/sundre-news/the-curious-case-of-chicken-little-3880082


Grizz

 

[Big Bad]

At least when they used to be plentiful around here, there was a 'crazy season' where the ruffed grouse would disperse and show up all over the place, they would often act unusually tame as well, and do crazy things like sitting in a bush and clucking at you. It's true I'm a burb dweller now and not in as good a position to see it, but I don't think it happens any more. Just not enough of them for a dispersal to be required, I'm guessing

 

[Big Bad]

There is a hen at our camp that will fly along with you when on the 4 wheeler. She will land beside or ahead of where you are and walk back and forth beside you. seems pretty tame for how often we are there.

Maybe considers you fox and coyote protection?

 

[kjohn]

I'd stay still and let her catch me too.

Yep.

 

[trevj]

Have caught a fair few chicks over the years, including several that could and did fly away from me afterwards.

Last Juvenile I caught was in our farm yard, I just walked it (herding it) into a building corner and it got all confused when it couldn't run any further. Pretty funny, really.

They have lots of babies, mainly because they don't have very much going for them in the way of smarts!

 

[leelad]

One time, when I was a kid, a ruffed grouse popped out of the woods next to me and started following me around.
Over the next month or so it decided it liked me and would peck at my boot laces whenever I went out into the woods and even hop up on my lap if I sat still...
Funny birds.

 

[trevj]

One time, when I was a kid, a ruffed grouse popped out of the woods next to me and started following me around.
Over the next month or so it decided it liked me and would peck at my boot laces whenever I went out into the woods and even hop up on my lap if I sat still...
Funny birds.

They have survival skills ingrained like a Liberal has Fiscal prudence!

 

[badgreenbird]

Is this a willow ptarmigan in summer plumage or hen Franklin's grouse ??

It's a Spruce Grouse, though it doesn't look like the Franklin's subspecies. They are generally found west of the mountains.