Four Feathers Studio

My first encounter with a Ruffed Grouse here in Wonderland was back in 2007, a very surprising first meeting, when we discovered a large bird stuck up in the rafters of the barn one afternoon. Beverly, lovingly nicknamed for the stories told afterwards, managed to finally accept our help as we gently encouraged her to fly down and out the barn door (she also graciously let us snap a quick photo to document and ID who exactly she was). Apart from the unusual first meeting, my encounters with Ruffed Grouse have always been with them being on the ground where I’ve seen them foraging amongst the underbrush, or on walks in the woods where I have unknowingly meandered too close to them and they suddenly burst forth from their roost or foraging spot to seek refuge. 

 

So, when I was out and about one morning last fall, following the warblers flit and forage through the upper-story branches of the wild cherry and ash trees, a Ruffed Grouse was just about the last bird I was expecting to see pop its head up out of the branches covered with Bittersweet. I had stood there watching the branches bob and bounce, trying to figure out what kind of bird must be up there making those branches move so dramatically, and literally as I was asking myself this question, her head pops up as if on cue. Beverly! Or most likely her daughter, Beverly Jr., was having quite the time eating a breakfast feast of Bittersweet berries—you can see the bright orange berries just in front of her. Wrestling them free, she ate them one by one, a quick open beak gulp and down the gullet they went. She’s not the partridge in a pear tree one hears about in song, but a Beverly in an Ash tree could make for a pretty darn good substitute in a pinch.