The King

[Marc Retallack]

Well, with the season not opening for another 10 months and living 150 miles from the forests I love, I find myself longing for a fix as the forecast calls for a few more inches of snow here in PA. Some of the best footage that I've seen of The King drumming https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MVfiIp3QGs4 Enjoy.

[Dean Romig]

Oh my.... Now you've gone and done it. And I thought I was able to put all of that in the back of my mind at least until August or September. More sleepless nights - (groan).

[Marc Retallack]

My sincerest apologies Dean. :whistle:

Hope your new hunting buddy is coming along well.


Marcus

[Dean Romig]

Just got back in from running her for a mile or so down by the river. We still have more than 15 inches of snow so hard I can walk on top of it without going through at all. The top inch or two is kind of soft from today's sun... just right for Grace's pads. The wind was pretty strong coming from the Northwest and along the river under some pines and scrub alder where the sun's rays have melted the snow to bare soft ground she bumped a woodcock. Can't blame her for bumping it as the wind was totally wrong... and she might have bumped it even if the wind was in her face - first bird of the season for a pup. Nice to know the woodcock are returning but the open areas are still pretty scarce with all the snow still on the ground.

[Dennis E. Jones]

A big thank you! It's been way too long since I heard a grouse drum.

Watching that reminded me of a bear hunt in Western Montana about 35 years ago. Three of us were walking up a horse trail on a ridge and heard a drummer up ahead so we were watching for him. As we were walking by him at 20 feet or less he jumped off his log and ran out and pecked me on the boot as if to say "get out of here, you're ruining my love life". I've seen a lot of grouse over the years but that was the only attack one.

[Rich Anderson]

I took Daisy and a DHE 30 inch 20ga out to the Haymarsh this am to run some of the winter stress off both of us. Our snow is for all intent and purposes gone. We moved 5 long tails and one Woodcock. First Timberdoodle of the year. Grouse season will once again be here..and gone in the blink of an eye.

[Gary Laudermilch]

I watch for them and think about them all year long. Last weekend a shooting buddy of mine and I were on our way to shoot some clays. We were driving past one of my favorite covers and I was looking for birds and almost drove off the road. My buddy says "I'll look, you drive the damn car!" Na, I never quit looking for them and I've been called a bunch of names as a result of my passion for grouse.

Glad to hear the woodcock are returning. It is snowing like a banshee right now. Sure does not look like dog running weather.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

365 days a year, i am thinking, looking, reading, often eating grouse. Already have my cabin paid for for October.

[chris dawe]

That was fantastic ! I had a ear to ear grin watching it ...It beg's the question ,why do Fall only come but once a year ?

[Steve Cambria]

Wonderful footage! Thanks for sharing. However I beg to differ. The "KING" of drummers is below. And yes, on a good night his single stroke roll was even faster than "ruffie's!"



http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/cambo1021/Buddy%20Rich%20%20with%20Artie%20Shaw.jpg (http://s1073.photobucket.com/user/cambo1021/media/Buddy%20Rich%20%20with%20Artie%20Shaw.jpg.html)

[Rich Anderson]

Steve the question is...will he hold for a point?:rotf:

[ron belanger]

Amazing video! Thanks for posting this!

[CraigThompson]

Grouse caused me to start shooting skeet which in turn caused me to start shooting trap ! Grouse caused me to start messing with setters . Grouse even caused me to start fly fishing for trout ( I thought I could hear them drum when I was fishing but of course I concentrated on the trout and the noise from the streams kept me from hearing the birds). Grouse were also the cause of me becoming a die hard 16 gauge person (back when I still bird hunted I used two SxS's , two O/U's a Model 12 and an A-5 . All six of those guns were 16 gauge :whistle::whistle:

[Steve Kleist]

Marc,
Thanks for the post and the link.
We live in the northwoods of northern Minnesota. There is a traditional grouse drumming log near our house. When the Life Flight helicopter makes a run to the local hospital across the lake, the resident cock grouse goes nuts trying to out-drum the helicopter. He puts on quite a show.
We are still in the grips of winter here and no drumming yet this year....however the promise of spring is in the air. We heard the beeps of the first Saw Whet Owl of the season last night.
Best Fishes,
Steve Kleist Ely, MN

[Carl Beers]

I'll make a long interesting story short; my wife and I were adopted by a wild grouse, these days referred to as Mr. Ruff. This all happened in Sept. of 2013. I was putting in a new line fence on the south forty; the heat whipped me and I sat down in the 4 wheeler to rest. Temp was 91 degrees. Heard a noise off to my left, looked over and about thirty feet away was a beautiful ruffed grouse. Actually there were two, maybe three of them. I pointed them out to my helper; we sat there about 15 minutes and one worked his way over to us and just sat there. The others disappeared. He was making a noise and I chirped back at him, he cocked his head and moved even closer. Now he was perhaps 3 feet from me. Just unreal and it gets even more unreal. Decided I'd done enough work for the day, cranked up the four wheeler and headed to the bunkhouse. The grouse started running right along beside us all the way to the edge of the timber. Then he stopped knowing he was not secure out in the hay field.

Told my wife about him at supper that evening and she couldn't believe it. Took her to the woods the next day and within 10 minutes he showed up. He was with us all fall, through deer season and into the winter of 2013 which was one of our worst; terrible cold and record snow. We figured we'd never see Mr. Ruff again. We looked for him several times during the winter thinking we saw him once up in the pine grove but figured he was lost with the severe weather and all. Guess what? Late March of 2014 we went to the timber and within a few minutes he showed up. I failed to mention earlier that he became so comfortable with us he'd sit on our arm, shoulder, on the four wheeler and actually sat in a deer stand during hunting for over three hours.

Going into winter of '14 we lost him again; presumably to the pine grove which is high, dense and secure in many ways. Well, 2014 was another tough winter here; not a great deal of snow but record sub zero cold and wind; we knew for sure we'd probably never see him again.

Last week my wife and I went to the timber in the old four wheeler. Took the chain saw to remove downed trees from fences, etc. and after about thirty minutes in the woods guess who showed up?....Yes, Mr. Ruff. That was March 15, 2015. He made it through another tough winter and looked to be in really good condition. Within a few minutes he was sitting on my wife's arm and renewing and reviewing old times. We've been back to the woods a couple times since then and he flies right to the four wheeler. We have well over a hundred pictures of him with us, with friends who doubted our story and even on the arm of Dr. Zimmer the wildlife biologist from the Ruffed Grouse Society. I could go on and on but don't want to bore you. Am in the process of writing a story about our Mr. Ruff for the Ruff Grouse Society magazine. Will tell in there about many of his adventures and how he survived an attack from a hawk. (he almost didn't-we thought for sure he was going to die) We also have many videos of him. We've never fed him as we didn't want him to become dependent upon us. We also know this won't last forever as Grouse have a life expectancy of 3-5 years with an average life of two years. What a blessing he has been to us, our family and many friends. Sorry I don't know how to load pictures which would really enable you to enjoy and get to know Mr. Ruff as we have.

[Steve Kleist]

Great story Carl. That kind of an encounter might make pulling the trigger this fall a little tough on us softies.
Thanks,
Steve

[Dean Romig]

Here are some of Carl's pictures. Carl and his wife Sue are the ones without feathers :smiley7:






.

[charlie cleveland]

got to be a mircle...i enjoyed this very much....charlie

[Carl Beers]

Dean....thanks for posting the pictures of Mr. Ruff. As Steve mentioned, shooting a grouse might be tough on some of us sissy's now. Well, we don't shoot grouse at our hunt camp now; not so much because of Mr. Ruff but more because our grouse population has dimenished so over recent years. We go further north in Wisconsin the hunt them and enjoy it a great deal. For sure though, Mr. Ruff has become something special at our place.

[Dave Suponski]

Carl, What a wonderful story. 14 years or so ago we had the last female grouse I have ever seen in Connecticut take up residence at our gun club of all places. She would wait for the guy's to open up in the morning on the road up to the club house and it got to the point I could hand feed her bits of donut out of my hand. This lasted a good few months. I have a picture of her just about standing on the tops of my boots hanging on my living room wall.

[Mike Koneski]

This makes me long for the upcoming season and hunting ruff and timberdoodle in Maine during their opening week!! But first I will enjoy our long awaited Spring, Summer and early Fall!!

[Larry Stalnaker]

Carl,

What a great story. You have truly been blessed in a way most of us can only imagine. And yes, pulling the trigger (if I am able to hunt this year) will be difficult.

And, Dean, thanks for taking care of posting the pictures for Carl.

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