Partridge - Ruffed Grouse

[Brian G. NY]

Ultradog's post reminded me of my experiences with Partridge over the years.
All my time growing up I never knew the Partridge was really a Ruffed Grouse.
They sure can startle you when they take off from right in front of you.
When my brother and I were really young we stumbled upon a female Partridge in the woods that appeared to be injured and kept flying around like she had a broken wing. My Dad told us later that she was feigning injury to distract us.
We looked down and saw a bunch of little chicks scurrying around trying to hide under leaves.
They looked a little like baby chicks but they were striped like a chipmunk.
That is one of my favorite childhood memories, something the average kid will never get to see!
I used to hunt them when I was younger but they liked to hang out in the young pines and hemlocks which made it hard to raise your gun when they took flight.
A few years ago we had a male Partridge that would come out when my son got out his riding mower. He would march right along with the mower as my son mowed back and forth. This happend off and on for two years. I guess the sound of the engine may have sounded like a rival.
About 10 or so years ago my young neice said to me one day "Uncle Brian, somebody is trying to start their 4-wheeler up in the back somewhere".
I listened for a while and concluded that it was a Partridge "drumming" on a hollow log.
I could see, to someone not familiar with the sound, it could be mistaken for someone repeatedly pulling a starter cord.

 

[Buckhammer]

We use to have a lot of grouse here in Southern Michigan up until the early 90's. I hunted A LOT when i was a kid. One day i was out rabbit and grouse hunting with my black lab. I was having an off day with my marksmanship. My dog and I came upon a thicket of grape vines that always held birds. I sent the dog in to flush out what birds were in there. I heard 2 birds flush but only seen one bird leave the thicket.

Well out of the thicket came my lab with the other bird in her mouth. She must have jumped up and caught the bird in flight, She walked up to me and dropped the bird, now dead, at my feet. She looked up at me and gave me a look as if to say " Well if you can't hit them i guess i am going to have to catch them." That lab was a hunting fool and was the best rabbit and bird dog i have ever owned.

 

[da.bees]

That's how it goes? Start off talking about grouse or old tractors then first thing you know some old dog has stole the spotlight. My brothers and I had a couple of dogs when growing up. There was constant coming and going around our place but if you didn't call them, the dogs would just raise their head, take a look then go back to their nap. UNLESS you was carrying a gun, and they would be half way to the woods before looking back, dance around barking. They often chased or treed the first thing they came across but tell them to leave it along and they wouldn't tree another the remainder of day. Once you let them know what you were after, it was game on.

 

[jhwis]

Ultradog's post reminded me of my experiences with Partridge over the years.
All my time growing up I never knew the Partridge was really a Ruffed Grouse.
They sure can startle you when they take off from right in front of you.
When my brother and I were really young we stumbled upon a female Partridge in the woods that appeared to be injured and kept flying around like she had a broken wing. My Dad told us later that she was feigning injury to distract us.
We looked down and saw a bunch of little chicks scurrying around trying to hide under leaves.
They looked a little like baby chicks but they were striped like a chipmunk.
That is one of my favorite childhood memories, something the average kid will never get to see!
I used to hunt them when I was younger but they liked to hang out in the young pines and hemlocks which made it hard to raise your gun when they took flight.
A few years ago we had a male Partridge that would come out when my son got out his riding mower. He would march right along with the mower as my son mowed back and forth. This happend off and on for two years. I guess the sound of the engine may have sounded like a rival.
About 10 or so years ago my young neice said to me one day "Uncle Brian, somebody is trying to start their 4-wheeler up in the back somewhere".
I listened for a while and concluded that it was a Partridge "drumming" on a hollow log.
I could see, to someone not familiar with the sound, it could be mistaken for someone repeatedly pulling a starter cord.

We called them partridge or birds. It was understood they were ruffed grouse. Have from time to time seen a few sharptail grouse as well. It's been many many years since I saw a sharptail.

 

[Rich'sToys]

When my brother and I were really young we stumbled upon a female Partridge in the woods that appeared to be injured and kept flying around like she had a broken wing. My Dad told us later that she was feigning injury to distract us.

I've seen killdeer do that. Didn't realize grouse did it too.

 

[da.bees]

I've seen killdeer do that. Didn't realize grouse did it too.

Mourning Dove put on a very good act. If you want to see how a mad momma bird acts when something gets near their nest (near can be up to 15' radius of tree nest is in) try a Mockingbird.

 

[rustred]

Last year cutting hay I ran over a nest of Hungarian partridge. It killed the momma bird as I seen it on the next round. So I went home and got the nieghbors incubator and hatched out the eggs. Think it was 17 eggs. Once they could fly I let them go. Thought that was the best I could do for that bunch of eggs. See Hungarian partridges regularly around here. That make that startling sound also when taking off.

 

[NDIHC]

I never heard of anyone calling a grouse a partridge. So I had to look it up and found out that it's primarily a New England thing. On the prairies of ND we have Hungarian Partridge and Sharptail Grouse. 2 different birds. There are a couple of areas that have Ruffed Grouse but they generally aren't found on the open prairie.

 

[buickanddeere]

Used to see and hear the “bush chickens” regularly as a kid . Then the coyotes and coy/wolves moved in. Rabbits, hares , all of the game birds , ground hogs , small game in general etc . They are now a notable exception if observed , rather than the norm.

 

[jhwis]

I've seen killdeer do that. Didn't realize grouse did it too.

Killdeer do it all the time yes.

 

[chico1]

In Northern NY we called them partridge too. Been scared many times while snowshoe hare hunting! Speaking of snowshoes, as you may know they turn white in the fall so they blend in with the snow. One year we had a warm fall and winter. My brother and I loved to hunt the hares and my mother would make hassenpfeffer for us so out we went but left the beagles at home. We didn't need them since there was no snow and the hares stood out like beacons in the night. We slayed them! We were looking forward to some good eating! When we came back to the house carrying 16 hares we were met by my father who knew what we had done. After a lecture about the difference between hunting and killing we cleaned our take and as instructed gave them to the neighbors as a lesson. We not only lost our hassenpfeffer, but we also lost our hunting privileges for a few weeks! That lesson carries on some 60 years later!

 

[Brian G. NY]

In Northern NY we called them partridge too. Been scared many times while snowshoe hare hunting! Speaking of snowshoes, as you may know they turn white in the fall so they blend in with the snow. One year we had a warm fall and winter. My brother and I loved to hunt the hares and my mother would make hassenpfeffer for us so out we went but left the beagles at home. We didn't need them since there was no snow and the hares stood out like beacons in the night. We slayed them! We were looking forward to some good eating! When we came back to the house carrying 16 hares we were met by my father who knew what we had done. After a lecture about the difference between hunting and killing we cleaned our take and as instructed gave them to the neighbors as a lesson. We not only lost our hassenpfeffer, but we also lost our hunting privileges for a few weeks! That lesson carries on some 60 years later!

That is a great story.......that kind of integrity is not as common as it once was!

 

[stevieb49829]

You ever step on one buried in the snow, using it for insulation? After a couple of those on snowshoes, you learn to spot the signs in the snow and can place a snowshoe over the top of where they're buried. They fly straight into the snow and push out a burrow ahead of them. I've found a few that had multiple piles of poo in the burrow, so they'd been undersnow for quite a while. Usually when it was well below zero for a long time. And yes, "partridge" in Minnesota, but ruffed (or ruffled) grouse west of there. steve

 

[Texasmark]

I recall the song with ".....and a Partridge in a Pear Tree" but only saw pictures of Ruffled Grouses. Look to be big fat birds to me, maybe a ground loving type of bird. Never ate one. How do they taste? Anything like "Cornish Hens" you buy in the store? Have that typical wild, dark meat???

 

[Sleufoot]

Growing up in NW Minnesota and going out after school in the late 60’s & early 70’s walking the edges of different woods brings back fond memories. We called them partridges. Tom in Mn..

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

We don't see a whole lot of ruffed grouse around here. Last I saw one, it jumped up & flew away from the dog & I. Loki didn't know what to make of it & I thought it looked like someone's rotisserie chicken flew off on them.

Washington State had lots of Sage Grouse & some kind of pointed grouse that wasn't too common in our range. They usually stayed east of the eastern outer belt. The Sage Grouse seem to rather run everywhere than fly. And they scatter around like the Keystone Cops when you get too close. They are as amusing as the burrowing owls!

Mike

 

[Texasmark]

We don't see a whole lot of ruffed grouse around here. Last I saw one, it jumped up & flew away from the dog & I. Loki didn't know what to make of it & I thought it looked like someone's rotisserie chicken flew off on them.

Washington State had lots of Sage Grouse & some kind of pointed grouse that wasn't too common in our range. They usually stayed east of the eastern outer belt. The Sage Grouse seem to rather run everywhere than fly. And they scatter around like the Keystone Cops when you get too close. They are as amusing as the burrowing owls!

Mike

Before the Fire Ant invaded our area and ruined all the ground nesting bird nests, we used to hunt Bob-White Quail. They would wait until the last minute when you approach and then all of a sudden whatever was there would take off with very fast beating of their large (for their body size) wings and spook you for a second or two....but that was enough time for them to gain distance and make them hard to shoot. We called the process "Flutter Fever"....your getting spooked for that couple of seconds.....course if you could afford dogs, they would know the whereabouts of the covies and "get on point" showing you that they were there and that gave those folks to be ready and be more successful than us "poor boys".

 

[buickanddeere]

Various kinds of bush chickens

 

[stevieb49829]

We have 3 grouse species nearby: Ruffed grouse, Franklin's (aka spruce grouse or fool hens) and Blue grouse. I've killed (and eaten) each of them. Both ruff's and fool hens are white breast meat, and very tasty. Blue grouse are big, high elevation birds, similar to prairie chickens (sage grouse), very dark meat and pretty "gamey" tasting. I've killed fool hens by throwing sticks at them - thus the name. And they all exhibit the broken wing thing when protecting a brood of chicks. Talk about weird sounds coming from a bird. First time I heard it I thought I stepped on a cat's tail. Love to hear ruffs drumming in the spring. steve

 

[Dave Westlund]

I haven't harvested what my buddies would call a grouse in 50 years. Buddy's are gone now so I personally love reading peoples experiences with the outdoors...