Tame Grouse

[Resica]

The Pennsylvania Game Commission along with Penn State are doing a survey about tame grouse, pretty interesting. Have you guys ever run into them? I ran into 1 in Quebec. Lots of folks here in Pa. have experience with them, lots of stories.

Game Commission Details

www.media.pa.gov

 

[Resica]

One guy posted this but I've seen several photos of this type of behavior.

 

[Pig Predator]

I've driven up on a bunch pecking gravel in the road within 30 feet. Cut my truck off and they just keep on pecking gravel but as soon as I open the truck door to get a better look they take off every time.

 

[northgeorgiasportsman]

I used to buy archery targets from a guy up above Asheville that had several really cool pics of a "tame" grouse that found him in the woods. It would sit on his hat, boot, leg, etc. I seem to remember he had multiple encounters with this bird over the years.

 

[Resica]

I used to buy archery targets from a guy up above Asheville that had several really cool pics of a "tame" grouse that found him in the woods. It would sit on his hat, boot, leg, etc. I seem to remember he had multiple encounters with this bird over the years.

I've read about a lot of that sort of thing up here. Birds following folks around and perching on them. I'd like that but has never happened to me. Saw a pic from Pa. with a grouse perched on a guys climbing tree stand, super cool.

 

[pjciii]

That is one smart grouse. Knowing That sitting on barrel is safest place to be if he doesn't want to get shot.

 

[lampern]

Spruce grouse seem to act tame but I don't think PA has spruce grouse

 

[Resica]

Spruce grouse seem to act tame but I don't think PA has spruce grouse

We only have Ruffed Grouse, our state bird. Spruce grouse, blue grouse. I've heard they are tame. Maybe back when, all Ruffed Grouse were tame. They are called " Fools Hens". Figured it was because they weren't bright.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Never encountered one like that. I always thought it was funny that you can drive right up to one on any motorized vehicle and it'll just sit there, but you're lucky to walk within 30 yards of one without it taking off.

 

[longrangedog]

I've gotten unbelievably close to several wild animals and birds while on a farm tractor. I think that after being around tractors pulling farm equipment, mostly going the same speed (slow), with the engine running the same RPMs making the same noise, traveling the same pattern in a field they come to see them as non-threatening. I even had hawks perch in trees around a field I was cutting with a rotary cutter waiting for rats to run out. They would skim along just above the ground and grab the rat in their talons. Sometimes they'd miss but mostly they didn't.

 

[kmckinnie]

To me they look the tame as the wild ones.

 

[coachdoug87]

One guy posted this but I've seen several photos of this type of behavior.
View attachment 1214009View attachment 1214009

Unbelievable.

 

[Duff]

To me they look the tame as the wild ones.

 

[J Gilbert]

I'll share a picture after work, but I caught one with my hands last year during turkey season in northern Cherokee County, GA. There's a gamebird "hunting" farm a few miles away and I've assumed it was one that got away from that facility but now you guys have me questioning it. This one flew to the sound of a Polaris Ranger and I was able to pick it up by hand fairly easily

 

[RatherB]

No wonder the population is declining. They are dumber than a Tyson chicken

 

[Resica]

No wonder the population is declining. They are dumber than a Tyson chicken

That's not why they've declined. They've been called Fools Hens.

 

[Nicodemus]

Never encountered one like that. I always thought it was funny that you can drive right up to one on any motorized vehicle and it'll just sit there, but you're lucky to walk within 30 yards of one without it taking off.

Back in the 60`s on the Oconee River, you could run up on a flock of turkeys on a sandbar and as long as you kept the motor on your boat running, they would stand there and let you kill nearly every one of them. Shut that motor off and they would scatter to the next county. They hadn`t got used to outboard motors, I reckon.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Back in the 60`s on the Oconee River, you could run up on a flock of turkeys on a sandbar and as long as you kept the motor on your boat running, they would stand there and let you kill nearly every one of them. Shut that motor off and they would scatter to the next county. They hadn`t got used to outboard motors, I reckon.

I'm sure untold thousands of grouse have been killed with .22 pistols out truck windows on forest service roads. Grouse love to come out into gravel roads to peck grit for their craws.

 

[Resica]

We got a ruffed grouse in Quebec while on a fishing trip. Got out of the truck and buddy killed it off a limb with a hand thrown rock.

 

[J Gilbert]

Picture as promised