A hen grouse

Have you ever walked silently through the Vermont woods only to have your peaceful solitude destroyed by a bird explosion right at your feet? If so, you have experienced what my mother calls "partridge spooking." (As in, I was running down the Shore Trail at Brighton State Park when I spooked a partridge and almost peed my pants!) These otherwise quiet forest birds are more accurately called ruffed grouse, and right now, you can hear ruffed grouse making a completely different type of noise.

It is spring time in the valleys of Vermont. Trees are growing leaves and wildflowers are popping up out of the earth. This time of year brings so much new life, including some baby animals in the forests of Vermont. Ruffed grouse are getting ready to make their shallow leaf lined nests at the foot of trees, rocks, or logs. To attract a mate, the male ruffed grouse makes a very unique noise.

If you ever thought you heard a distant motor starting in the tranquil early spring woods, you may have heard the male grouse. Males attract females by making a drumming noise-rapidly beating their wings on a fallen log on the forest floor. This drumming is so low pitched, you might feel the percussion of this call and not audibly hear it.
 

A ruffed grouse

These birds are cryptically colored to match the colors of the forest floor where they live. Although they are pretty large in size, and shaped like chickens, they are difficult to see because of their camouflaged coloration, and their super slow movements. You are more likely to hear them drumming or hear them exploding off the forest floor, than you are to see them. Grouse prefer early successional mixed hardwood forests, which is great news because those types of forests are abundant in Vermont. Listen for them in Big Deer, Coolidge, Fort Dummer, Mount Philo, Woodford, and Lake Carmi State Parks, and you might get to hear them drumming too.