New way to hunt grouse.....

[MrTom]

Just pick them up.

While tripping on atvs in Wisconsin we stopped at a small bridge over a trout stream to watch trout fry in the creek. I'd walked over to the side of the road and into the weeds to get a better look when this darned grouse flew over from the other side of the creek and landed near my foot. The critter hopped up on my boot then back in the grass and ran around me like it was crazy. I got the phone out to try to get a picture when I realized it would just stand there while I knelt down, then got on my stomach for a super close up when the thing hopped up on my arm and started pecking. Then on my elbow and some more pecking so I just picked him up with my other hand. I got this picture and set it down in the road where it simply stayed and followed us around until we got to the machines and started them and drove off. Never seen crazier behavior from a grouse before.

This was taken about two feet away from the goofy bird. Right after I got this picture he hopped up on my arm. With the phone in it of course.

 

[deermanok]

That's awesome.

 

[03mossy]

Very cool experience!!

 

[bronko220002]

Incredible....A couple years ago every time I drove my ATV down this trail, at the same spot, a grouse would run along side me for 50-75 yards. I wasn't going very fast and all I could think of is that the putt putt sound of the ATV sounded like a rival male drumming!

 

[toytruck]

I hit one with my car going to college class many years ago. It stuck in the grill. I put it in the trunk and it was on the menu that evening, waste not want not...

Usually they just scare the crap out of me when out in the forest. Haven't seen one in a long time now.

 

[bronko220002]

I stepped over one pre dawn when heading to a tree stand during archery season many years ago. It took off with those thundering wings and its wings hit my legs. I think my heart stopped for a few seconds!

 

[MrTom]

Scary stuff in those dark woods. Lol. I was scaling my vertical mountain one morning an hour before any kind of light. My headlamp passed over some foliage that I hadn’t noticed and it cast a shadow the looked just like a skunk. I was in mid-stride and commenced to do some very fancy footwork. It took half an hour for the heart rate to get normal.

This grouse was totally out of character. As a rule all I see is the leaves move and hear wings.

 

[Squeeze]

when I was a kid, they were thick around here, There was a time, you could not walk to your stand without flushing a few just walking in pre dawn. Now there is none to be found anywhere. Pheasant and quail are stocked here now. The whole upland scene is some kind of crazy competitive sport now rife with idiots of every description. I dont even hunt birds anymore, and my dog is just a housepet fishing buddy now

 

[ENCORE50A]

when I was a kid, they were thick around here, There was a time, you could not walk to your stand without flushing a few just walking in pre dawn. Now there is none to be found anywhere. Pheasant and quail are stocked here now. The whole upland scene is some kind of crazy competitive sport now rife with idiots of every description. I dont even hunt birds anymore, and my dog is just a housepet fishing buddy now

Same for us, lots of birds. I grew up a member of Ruffed Grouse Society & American Woodcock Society

I understood the ups and downs but, our biggest problems started when the price of fur dropped. It just wasn't worth trapping any more and all but the die-hard trappers gave it up and youngsters weren't taught how to trap.

Racoons are the largest raiders of ground nesting birds. Texas did a study on the loss of ground nesting birds and found that 60% of all ground nesting birds nests were destroyed by racoons. That's a significant loss.

 

[CatamountRob]

I see pictures on FB hunting pages regularly about “friendly” grouse such as this but I’ve never experienced it myself. Very cool.
The number of grouse in my area has declined dramatically in my lifetime as the woods in VT have aged. Same for deer and snowshoe hare as well. I haven’t seen a hare in years and jumping grouse is rare.

 

[toytruck]

Grouse can see blaze orange too, just like wild turkeys. I was in a deer stand with required orange on during rifle season. A grouse flew in above me an was walking across in front of me, looked up, saw me an took off right then. Never saw a deer after that....

 

[stubshaft]

Awesome job!

 

[FredB]

I know the Idaho Fish and Game has a rule now that you can't harvest grouse with "hand thrown missiles" ie sticks and rocks. Which happened enough they thought they needed to make a rule. I'm pretty sure that wasn't in there when I was a kid. Anyway, not sure they have any rule about plucking one off of your own arm or just grabbing one that invaded your personal space. Sounds like justifiable self defense to me. Maybe not.

 

[Renegadehunter]

We had one act similar a few years ago, although it didn't hop onto anyone.
We were riding atv's and stopped for a break. About 5 minutes after we stopped a Ruff came walking out of the brush on the side of the trail. It walked around all of us, weaving through us and walking under a couple atv's. It acted like it was tame, zero fear of us. It hung around until we decided to continue the ride. We were nowhere near any camps or cabins. It was Fall and grouse was open, a couple of us had a .410 with us, but of course we had zero desire to shoot such a silly acting bird. Neat, but weird to see one act that way for sure. We joked that he had found him some fermented berries to eat.