[wisb] Vilas County Spruce Grouse, 4/8
- From: "Robert D. Hughes" <rhughes.enteract@xxxxxxx>
- To: WIS-BIRDN <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2012 10:14:37 -0500
Karen Mansfield and I spent the weekend of April 7 - 8 in northeastern
Wisconsin looking for Spruce Grouse. We concentrated our search along
Fire Lane Road near the town of Conover in Vilas County.
On Saturday morning we arrived at Fire Lane Road and walked and drove
the first couple miles, looking and listening for grouse along the road.
Unfortunately most of the land along Fire Lane Road is private property
and marked as such with intimidating private property signs, so we
decided not to venture very far into the woods. After a couple hours of
fruitless searching we decided to move on and try our luck elsewhere.
Later in the day we learned that Tom Wood had seen a male Spruce Grouse
along Fire Lane Road on Friday so we contacted Tom for more information
about his sighting. As it turns out Karen and I had walked right by the
spot where Tom had seen his Spruce Grouse the day before. Armed with
this knowledge we returned to the area early on Sunday morning and after
some searching we found a male Spruce Grouse walking on the ground
beneath a stand of trees right next to the road. The bird put on quite a
show for us, strutting around, flying up onto low branches of trees, and
for all purposes acting like the king of the world. After a few minutes
he went into freeze mode not more than 15 feet in front of us. I took
advantage of this foolish behavior and got some decent pics of the bird,
one of which I posted at Illinois Birders' Forum, URL below.
Other birds seen on our trip include Bald Eagles, displaying American
Woodcock and Ruffed Grouse, a lingering Snowy Owl on the Oconto
breakwater, Pileated Woodpeckers, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, a couple
Gray Jays, Common Ravens, Purple Finches throughout and Evening
Grosbeaks coming to a feeder in the town of Alvin. We dipped on Boreal
Chickadee, despite going through some excellent looking habitat. A real
treat was hearing the songs of territorial Winter Wrens, Brown Creepers,
Hermit Thrushes and Golden-crowned Kinglets, species which rarely if
ever sing during migration.
A big thanks to Daryl Tessen and Tom Wood for help with finding our quarry.
Link to Spruce Grouse photo and story on IBF:
http://www.ilbirds.com/index.php?topic=50415.0
Robert D. Hughes
Chicago, Illinois
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