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Ruffed Grouse and its Winter Challenges

A day doesn’t go by when it’s been so terribly cold that I don’t pity the wild creatures having to put up with not only the severely low temperatures but food shortages as well. A wild creature, which has been one of my top all-time-favorites, the Ruffed Grouse, can most often successfully meet winter’s cruelest terms in the North Country.

Woodpeckers, all the way from the Pileated down to the Downy, spend nights in their nesting cavities for added warmth. Other songbirds, such as the Black-capped Chickadee and White-breasted Nuthatch, also make nighttime use of their nesting cavities. It is not uncommon for upwards of a half-dozen or more of these small birds using the same cavity at night. I suppose one could compare it to humans using the “bundling” technique to conserve energy.

The “snowshoes,” or pectinations, are full grown and ready for walking on snow.

A Ruffed Grouse’s feathers increase in density in fall, and also cover legs and feet for increased insulation. Ruffy’s tarsi are fully feathered. Special feathers, known as “after” feathers, begin growing from each main axis, or rachis, of the contour feathers. These may be as long as three-quarters of the originals from which they grow, and have a downy structure that greatly enhances insulation.

In addition to long white silky hairs covering the lower legs of the Ruffed Grouse, each of these birds in the northern part of their range, where snow can get quite deep, automatically grows tiny one-eighth to three-sixteenths of an inch pectinations along the edges of the toes each fall. These roughly double the bottom surface area of the toes and act as snowshoes, thereby enabling one of these “king of game birds” to walk on the snow without sinking dangerously deep. By March or into early April, these “snowshoes” will have naturally worn off.

Interestingly, most daytime activities of the Ruffed Grouse now will take place above the snow. However, the deep layer of insulating snow will become Ruffy’s bed at night. At least 10 inches of fluffy snow are required, but a few feet serve the bird much better. The grouse will simply dig its way into the loose snow or is known to actually dive head-first into a deep snow bank, then tunnel a foot or more further into the snow, slightly enlarge its bedtime chamber, fluff out its feathers and remain roughly 40 degrees warmer beneath the snow than it would above it. In other words, if the air temperature above the blanket of snow reads 20 degrees below zero, the temperature within the snow will be about 20 degrees above zero.

A Ruffed Grouse has beautiful feather patterns on its head.

Food-finding for many wild creatures becomes extremely difficult with the arrival of deep snow. Ruffy’s meals now will be gotten from somewhere above the forbidding layer of white.

Charlotte and I lived at the Ridges Rangelight Residence from 1966-1982, me for 16 years and Charlotte for 10, and we had excellent observing conditions to study the Ruffed Grouse doing its feeding. The catkins of Ironwood and especially buds of Willow, Serviceberry and Small-toothed Aspen appeared to be among their favorites, being high in protein and certain minerals. The winter buds of especially the male Small-toothed or Quaking Aspens, usually at least 30-40 years old, are considered to be their favorites. Check maps showing the distribution ranges of the Small-toothed Aspens and the Ruffed Grouse in North America and you will find them to be virtually identical.

Another great favorite tree bud is the apple. Neighbors across the highway in Baileys Harbor where we used to live had several large old apple trees and it became possible for us to set our watches when the three or four Ruffed Grouse appeared at dusk for their apple bud “suppers.” The same held true with the three large Sugar Maples in the east yard at the Rangelight Residence…how the grouse also loved those buds.

This story goes back to New Hampshire in the mid-1800s when apple growing there was quite an important industry. Damage to the apple trees, the grouse feasting on the buds, became so severe that the state paid a 25-cent bounty for each grouse killed. In one year the damage claim to the apple growers amounted to $26,800, which in turn was collected from the killing of 107,200 Ruffed Grouse.

Ernest Thompson Seton nicknamed November the Mad Month in respect to the Ruffed Grouse. October, the Acorn Month, is a time when some of the grouse living in the uplands spend more time on the ground feasting upon White Clover, Wintergreen, acorns and other nuts. December, the Snow Month, brings a drastic change with the arrival of snow naturally forcing the grouse above ground into the shrubs and trees to feed primarily on buds.

The pectinations on its toes plus good tread on the bottom of the feet help the grouse stay balanced on a thin branch.

Intensive study of the Ruffed Grouse led Seton to believe that November, the time of the Mad Month, brings about a natural scattering of the first year birds. They literally “go crazy” with their erratic flights. Their scattering reduces the chances of “interbreeding” thereby maintaining stronger races by reducing consanguinity.

Our friends Mary Ann and Joel Blahnik recently reported that they had a total of six Ruffed Grouse kill themselves flying against some of their house windows within the last few months, and did we have ideas as to why this was happening. Our best educated guess was that it was the “crazy month,” time for these fast-flying creatures to scatter, and very likely there had been a few broods raised in the surrounding woods of the Blahniks’ home.

There is an old saying that people may be “ruffled” at times, bringing about, for example, the use of the term “ruffled spouse,” but never is the Ruffed Grouse a Ruffled Grouse. Perhaps one exception unfortunately occurs when the “crazy month” of November causes their flights, their reaction times, their normal instincts to really become quite badly “ruffled,” often for only a few seconds, but long enough for a fatal crash to come about between the grouse and a window.

Here’s hoping that the “grouse around your house” doesn’t fly into one of your windows!