"Drumming Grouse!"

[jonny_redhorse]

Just a great morning!.....I finally captured an image of a ruffed grouse drumming on his log!...happy camper !...Actually I "put the sneak" on 2 different grouse and spotted both of em doing the drum thing!...They both spotted me and "froze"....I tried something different this morning and "froze" with em.....pretty tough to stay motionless for 15-20 minutes only working the shutter/cable release while the grouse looks for one wrong move from you!...then he apparently figured I'd do no harm and started drumming in front of me(50' away)...these guys aren't stupid!....anyways ..they sure were nice to watch this warm spring sunny morning with absolutely no wind and nice weather and all!....images were digiscoped Nikon ED-50.....I might add that "both" these grouse are on the very same logs as last spring...not necessarily the same birds....

just before he starts drumming...

and the "classic" drumming stance and wingbeat....

after he quieted down...

and bird #2 on his log...about 150' from the other grouse

[finnbay]

Well done, jonny!

[Jim Almquist]

Sounds like a great time Jonny. You need to hook a video camera to that digiscope so we can see all the action

[jonny_redhorse]

Thanks Ken ,Jim!....the camera on my digiscope "does" video Jim! ....I have yet to try video on any of my cameras(they all are capable)....just might be a good idea some day!......

[JayinMN]

Nice job johnny, persistence paid off!

[jonny_redhorse]

Thanks Jay....I found 2 more drumming logs this morning at Carey....4 totaled in the last 2 days.....and all 4 are the same logs they used last year!...pretty amazing!....These guys will be drummimg for a good month yet....you stand in one spot and you can hear different birds drumming over a large area.....just a wonderful "sound of spring"....

[tacklejunkie]

i knew i heard them the other morning but my bro in law told me its too early

[panthrcat]

what a cool post!!!

I mentioned in another post about drumming grouse, last year I got a few images, (I'll post when I can get a chance) of one last year,, I found it very entertaining, I heard him over 'n over while out camping (we love to camp early in the spring and downrig for trout) and hubby asked me why I wasn't trying to capture him with my camera, I figured they were miles 'n miles back in the bush,, but he wasn't!! he was just off the main trail a hundred feet or so, and I was lucky enough to find cover in an upturned tree.. so I hunkered down and waited.

the silly bird would climb up on a log, and do his drumming, and jump off, walk a small area,, lookin around (he saw me there) and then jump back up on the log and do it all over again,, over and over and over he did this!!!

this year I have a better set up for gear, so I'm gonna try to capture more of the birds when they do this.

cool images you have here!!

Sue

[Debbie K]

Sue - I came across one drumming last fall, but between the light and branches in the way, I couldn't get a clear shot. They are fun to watch.

[Catmendo]

Nice work!