Steve Schwartze, renowned Ornithologist, the son of my good friend Andreas, (Andy) Schwartze, asked me how many different kinds of Grouse I had encountered in my travels.
Probably many, but they remained specifically unrecognized, due to my abysmal ignorance in the field .
All I know is that "this was a beautiful bird".
Here is one of my "close encounters" with a Grouse:
The sound of a nearby Harley Davidson woke me out of a shallow sleep in my tent, one early morning in the wilds of Algonquin Park.
This is not possible, I thought. I'm in the middle of Algonquin. There cannot be a Harley, or any other motorcycle.
I rubbed sleep out of my eyes.
Dawn had just broken.
The day promised to be a great one.
This, I thought is not a Harley, but a Grouse drumming to announce the protection of its territory, or to call a mate, or to just say 'Hello' to the new day.
I grabbed my Nikon with the 24 to 300 mm Zoom and followed the 'drumming" .
Slowly and quietly I made my way through the dense brush.
I head learned that during the drumming, a Grouse neither sees nor hears external sounds well. He is almost in a trance.
Likely in anticipation of meeting a young Grouse-Chick.
In this respect a Grouse's behavior resembles closely the behavior of a young male human. When he feels the proximity of a female of the species, he also throws caution to the wind.
I, very cautiously made my way toward the drumming sound. During the drumming I crept a little closer. As soon as the drumming stopped, I just remained motionless, lying on the pungent, smelling ground.
More drumming.... more creeping a little forward...
drumming stopped, I stopped all movement....
until suddenly I could make out this beautiful Grouse, sitting on a long ago fallen log.
He drummed, I tripped the shutter... He stays silent, I and my camera made not a sound.
And so I came close enough to get those pictures:
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