Drummer with Audio

The Flush from a different viewpoint.

"To be alive, is that not to be again and again surprised?" ~ Poul Anderson, Satan's World

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

I captured a set of 5 videos that I think are remarkable and I have to share them with you.  Your mileage may vary on this.

Yesterday, we left the cabin to drive home.  On the way out, I drove back onto the property across the road to recover my game cam that I had left on the drumming log.  We parked the truck roughly 200 yards away from the cam and walked back to get it.   As we neared the log, I heeled Rowdy up, asked Ann to stay back behind me and got out my cellphone hoping to get a video of the grouse if it was on the log. 

In fact the grouse was on the log and the game cam captured him as we approached.  Here he is getting one last drum in roughly about the same time we were parking the truck. 

As we get closer, he starts to hear us and gets more agitated.  

As we get close and Rowdy and I start walking off the ATV trail to go to the log, he realizes he's in danger, sucks his feathers in to get small and jumps down to hide behind the log. 

Right about that same time, I was taking this short video with my cell phone.  I release Rowdy when I don't see a bird on the log, not knowing he's hidden behind the log.  Rowdy smells him, but doesn't see him and starts hunting.

Thinking the bird is not there, I blithely walk up to pick up the game cam and turn it off.  The game cam captures me getting suddenly startled when the grouse flushes up from behind the log as I appear over the log.

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad/ Geoff

The Drumming Log

"You can only cherry pick where there are cherries."   Ann Althouse

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

I have a new hobby: Creeping on Ruffed Grouse on their drumming log.  Bear with me whilst I ‘splain this.   I’ve written some things here in the past about my retirement hobby of bird hunting and dog training with Rowdy.  We fell into being Ruffed Grouse hunters because that’s the bird that’s readily available near our cabin in Wisco.

So, I recently learned a really important detail about ruffed grouse, drumming and drumming logs.  Specifically, I learned how to identify the actual drumming log.  (Thanks Mr. Hintz!)

You can find a lot of details about grouse drumming behavior here.  Please read it so I don’t have to be ‘splainin’ it.  

I knew where the grouse were drumming across the street from the cabin because I’ve been hearing them for years.  So, once I knew how to identify the actual log – hint, the grouse leave huge piles of… well, er….poop pellets.  Once you seen ‘em they are unmistakable.

Here’s a picture of when Rowdy and I found the log.  

Rowdy and the Drumming Log

 Next strand in this story: I recently bought a cheap entry level game camera.  It has infrared night capability, video capability but does not record sound.  

 

So, before Ann and I left the cabin last Friday to come back home, I left the game cam on the log to see what would show up.  I drove back up here, yesterday, Tuesday and picked up the cam and then unloaded the truck at the cabin.  I was impatient to see what I’d captured in 3 days but moving into the cabin by yourself requires about 15 minutes of things that have to be done first.

So, when I finally, got the laptop booted up and the SD card inserted I was on tenterhooks.  My whoop had to be audible for hundreds of yards when I discovered I’d captured over 800 pictures of both day and night activity.  So many in fact that it’s quite daunting to pick just one or two to share.

I emptied the SD card, which had filled up over the weekend and then googled how to put the cam in video mode.  Last night right before sunset, I went back and replaced the cam.  I picked it up again this morning.  I had over 150 videos of the grouse drumming!  Woo Hoo!

This is the best picture I got of the grouse.

 

Ruffed Grouse.

Here are some videos of the grouse on the log.

Here is the grouse drumming.

 

I wish my game cam had audio capture but I'm too frugal to pay for that.  

I also captured some other visitors to the grouse log during the night.  This is either an Ermine or a Weasel.  My research says the the weasels love them some Grouse.

Ermine or Weasel?

 A coyote cruised by at least two times.

Coyote

 ...and right around sunrise, I got this video of him.

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad/Geoff