I'm surrounded - send Alfred Hitchcock!

[Richard Flanders]

At least 9 of the kids showed up for dinner this evening. I'm a real seven eleven for them; they get sunflower seeds under the feeder, grit under the deck, nice snowbanks to tuck into for an after dinner nap and aspens to walk around in for a dessert of buds. They can be very comical as they walk out the small branches looking for buds to nip. Good show this time. All but a few are getting pretty used to me. Pics are a bit fuzzy as it's dusk and the 3 in the trees were taken through the window while sitting at my desk. They seem to sit there and watch me through the window; could be they just want to learn how to use the computer....or are they planning their Hitchcockesque attack?

[Phillip Carr]

What a great thing to be able to share a window into these birds lives and habits. Great pictures.

[Dean Romig]

What a wonderful way to be surrounded!





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[Rich Anderson]

Audrey heard a thud she thought was from the inside of the garage. I chalked it up to absurdity. When I backed out of the garage she asked, "what's that bird in the yard"? It was a grouse that flew into the window and apparently was none the worse for wear. The funny thing is I don't live in grouse country. It's nice to know there around.

Richard I'd be on the lookout for hawks and owls looking for an easy meal. The neighbor has a wandering cat and I have a 22 Hornet, someday they will meet.

[Mills Morrison]

Those birds look friendlier than Alfred Hitchcock's

[Gerald McPherson]

Richard we all know what you are doing. He will be making pictures with his kills when season rolls around. Be some of birds on his plate I'll bet.

[Dean Romig]

My money's on Richard leaving those dooryard birds alone. Plenty more birds a short ride away from his house.






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[Richard Flanders]

Roger that Dean. I chase grouse hard in the woods, but around my house they are in a fiercely protected sanctuary. A friend came over for breakfast last weekend; she had 5 bird dogs in her car and I made her keep them there. Some of these grouse day roost 30ft from my back door.

[charlie cleveland]

a really nice seen these birds are lucky to have a friend like richard...charlie

[Richard Flanders]

Five birds in for chow this evening, one of which is the bully. He never did eat; all he seemed to want to do was hassle the others, who really just wanted a good meal, which they didn't get. This guy chased around strutting and really got after the others, which eventually gave it up and flew up into the trees to feast on buds instead. One tried to ignore him while he sat for a rest after feeding, but it didn't work as the aggressive one sat there egging him to "c'mon down here and fight!" The strutter never ate a sunflower seed and eventually went up into a tree to feed. Go figure. Boys, eh? He's only 4ft away from me in the closest shot through the window and didn't pay a lick of attention to me. Too bad it's a bit dark for photos. This little show sure makes the end of my day.

[Dean Romig]

Obviously the Alpha bird in the local pecking order. Great pictures Richard!





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[Gary Laudermilch]

It is fun to watch the interactions that occur in any wildlife population. Most people never get to see much, only snapshots in time. You have a unique opportunity. Enjoy and thanks for sharing.

[Richard Flanders]

My bird buddies are an important part of my winter life as the snow and cold just keep on going. They're my "kids" for sure. Funny thing about the alpha guy is that he made an impressive showing of being the tough guy on site but when another male had the thought, "Ok, this sucks and I'm hungry, let's finish this axxhole!" and trotted up and challenged the strutter, he turned tail and ran off! That was fascinating. Seems that a bully is a bully regardless of the species and they're often not as tough as they seem or would like to think.

[Richard Flanders]

Yesterday evening gave me something new in the bird world here. I was watching through the big front window, waiting for them to start coming in and come in they did. I watched two birds come in hot and disappear under the snow for a few seconds then pop just their head up a few feet from where they "crashed" in. I knew they did that and have seen their holes here before, but have never actually seen it happen. It happens very fast, so fast that you can't even tell exactly how they enter the snow; they just come in hot and disappear. Very cool. It's a great survival technique for evading night time predators. Ptarmigan do the same thing. I had a ruffie burrow at least 6ft here on the pad once. A predator like a marten will come around poking their head into the entry hole looking for a meal, which alerts the bird which busts out feet away to make a safe getaway. I did see one failure of this in the forest near here some years back. I was wading through knee deep snow hunting at -20F and came upon a feather pile next to a 12ft high spruce snag. An owl had clearly seen the entry hole and sat on the snag waiting for the grouse to emerge and jumped him when he did. Pretty smart owl. The snag was stained with a lot of scat and was clearly a regular perch for the owl. The grouse picked the wrong spot for his night roost.

[Dean Romig]

You're a lucky man Richard!





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[edgarspencer]

The grouse population is always under attack from one corner or another. This shot was caught by one of the many amateur/professional photographers in the Greenville Maine area. They all have a fascination with the incoming turkeys, but to me, they are just another threat to grouse that I worry about.

[Dean Romig]

Kathy and I just saw a mated pair of Barred Owls in the pine woods by my house yesterday. Of course the last grouse I saw around here was around twenty-five years ago. Where I hunt in Vermont there are loads of them and lots of turkeys and coyotes too. I think we're in for hard times up there though. The friend who owns the six-hundred acres that I hunt on has been selling off all of his softwood.... (grouse roosting areas).







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[Richard Flanders]

You get many turkeys there they might wreak havoc on the grouse population. They're quite the predator and will eat anything that will fit down their throat. I'm sure they'd love grouse eggs if they found a nest. When hunting in Montana this fall we kicked some turkeys up..... off a dead turkey that they were feeding on.

[edgarspencer]

I do not shoot anything I don't intend on eating, and there are several turkey breasts in my freezer to attest to that. Do you have any owl recipes?

[John Dallas]

I don't think turkeys affect grouse populations. Neither does the University of Tennessee.

https://ag.tennessee.edu/fwf/craigharper/Documents/Do-wild-turkeys-influence-quail-or-grouse-populations.pdf

[Richard Flanders]

Good article. Thanks John.

Edgar, I did make up a relatively tasty hawk soup while working in the jungle in Central America many years ago, but I can't recall the exact recipe. I do remember that it wasn't near as good as our usual fare of parrots, pigeons, partridge of some kind and toucans.... think chicken...

[edgarspencer]

I agree that it is an interesting paper, if not a fair bit of opinion.
I think most wildlife biologists are in agreement that grouse populations do change in cycles, all other things being equal (predator population and human influenced habitat changes). I began to notice a significant grouse decline in CT back in the mid 70s, and also an increase in Turkey populations. Prior to this point, we had no wild turkey in CT for generations. I never put the two facts together back then.
The state of Maine has perhaps the largest forrest management program in the country, due largely to the huge logging and pulpwood industry it supports. Still, with this fact in mind, state biologists who have spent years studying grouse populations (Grouse hunting in Maine is second only to the snowmobilers in off season income) feel wild turkey are among the larger number of bird predation.

[Richard Flanders]

My yard is definitely beginning to look like a tracked up chicken pen.

[Richard Flanders]

News flash: I THINK the spring dispersal has commenced. Only a couple of birds at a time coming in for the past few days and they're coming to eat in broad daylight sometimes. Snow is still at least 2ft deep. Seems early to disperse but not that early as they're often drumming in April if I remember right. At least I'm sending them off fat and sassy and ready to produce nice healthy offspring.

[Dean Romig]

Nice work Richard!





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