• Thursday-What'sUP April 14 - 12:03 am

In the first month of Springtime, my true love gave to me, a partridge in a bare tree! The Yooper version of a Christmas classic, revised for the current season! :-> All kidding aside, Tom Cook snapped up quite the capture of a bird, commonly referred to as a "game" bird and belonging the to pheasant family of fowl. I've always called them partridge, but other common names are: grouse, bobwhite and quail, so I'm not quite certain what the correct name is. Maybe some of our resident bird watchers can clarify the correct species for us today. One thing I do know for sure is that these guys produce the neatest thumping sound with their wings, it sounds much like someone beating on a drum! Ahh... another sound that tells me it's Spring!

Neat picture - I'm not sure what the correct name is either, though.

I can hear the nervous whit, whit, whit. Ruffed grouse is what it is, but growing up in the UP we always called them partridge. Had many a bird startle me over the years, walked after one once that was about 6 feet from me and wouldn't fly - of course I didn't have a gun even though it was in season. I was taking pictures of the falls by Lac Labelle.

Morning! There was a huge common flicker at my bird feeder yerterday afternoon. Wasn't fast enough to get a picture of it though. I've only seen a common flickeron the fringe of the field in the longer grass, so it was a real treat to see it close up. Gotta love bird watching.

Good morning

How about Ruffled Grouse?

Morning all,

That's definitely no spring chicken!! It is a ruffled grouse. You can tell by how "ruffled" she looks in that tree, and also I can almost hear Curly saying, "Look at the grouse Moe, look at the grouse"!!!

Morning all! Nice picture again! I love it when people are able to capture birds of all kinds.

The reason I visit this site everyday is to put a smile on my face, and sure enough, it worked again today. Capt. Paul, now that you mention it, I can hear Curly too :-) Great shot.

In honor of the first sentence in Mary Drew's photo description today (yes, this is actually happened)....
Several years ago I was in a dollar store, sometime around the Christmas season. Sitting on the shelf was what appeared to be a square piece of wood, a hole drilled in it's center. Glued in the hole was a twig from a tree. Dangling from the twig on a string was an empty shell casing from a 22 rifle. My first thought was that this must be a "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree of some sort, but the shell casing threw me. Then I noticed the inscription. Are you ready for it? It was a "cartridge in a bare tree".

Apparently there is something called a "ruff"- they are actually ruffed grouses, no L.
Very nice picture!

From Wikipedia:
"The Ruffed Grouse, Bonasa umbellus, is a medium-sized grouse.
Ruffed Grouse have two distinct color phases, grey and red. In the grey phase, adults have a long square brownish tail with barring and a black band near the end. The head, neck and back are grey-brown; they have a light breast with barring. The ruffs are located on the sides of the neck. These birds also have a "mohawk" on top of their head, which sometimes you can see, but normally the feathers are flat on the Ruffed Grouse's head. The female is smaller with less obvious ruffs and a shorter tail."

Morning All.
--Tom-- Very fine shot of the Ruffled Grouse. Am curious to know how far away you were when you took the shot.
Checking out the Lift Bridge Cam and looks to be a glorious spring day in the UP. Enjoy the day everyone.

The drumming of a RUFFED GROUSE is a really cool sound -- can be heard for a great distance. And I have seen one displaying in the middle of a busy highway; the males display for the females somewhat like Turkeys do.

Great picture. The ones by us are so dumb that you have to stop the car, as not to hit them. Wonder how long this gene pool will survive?

Planted my ski pole once and a ruffed grouse flew up out of the hole. Scared the livin' bejabbers out of me. Down in Menominee county we called them partridge. Out hiking one day with a friend we spotted one and he called it a grouse and then said, "The local yokels call them partridge." It's a great picture. Such dumb birds--they fly out of their hiding spots and perch in a tree for a perfect shot.

I agree with MrBill, I think partridge hit every branch when they fell out of the dumbtree. But they aren't the dimmest; turkeys are worse!!

There was a bird farm near us and when the turkeys were chicks, they had to put them in the chickens so the chickens could teach the turkeys how to eat and also not drown during a rainstorm. Turkeys have a habit of looking straight up during a rain, opening their beaks, and drinking the falling rainwater, but not smart enough to know when to stop, they drown themselves....

HAVE A BLUEJAY THAT SOUNDS LIKE A RINGING BELL. HEARD THE SOUND FOR A YEAR AND THOUGHT IT WAS IN ELECTRIC LINES. THEN ONE DAY I SAW HIM SING. WE CALL HIM JINGLES. LOOKED IT UP ON GOOGLE AND FOUND ONE OTHER PERSON WHO HAD EXPERIENCED THIS. I GUESS THEY ARE GOOD MIMICS. JEFF

On the topic of birds, I forgot to mention that the sandhill cranes have returned to the LLB slews. We haven't seen them yet, but we could hear their gravel-ly calls last evening, and again this morning.

Upwannabee,
The ultimate in bird mimmicktry (is that even a word??) are mockingbirds. My parents have them in New Mexico and Texas is full of them also, especially near our new house. I have heard everything from doorbells to phone ringers to those lasertag guns and everything in between. I have even went outside when one was around and started whistling and sure enough, the thing mimmicked my whistle, or at least attempted to; I'm not a very good whistler ;-)

The magic of the ruffed grouse's drumming is like the owls' hooting in the softness of a night. Only heard it in the woods of The Clearing in Door Co. But we must'nt be too hard on the young fellows as we all know they're serenading their ladys. Commonsense is suspended. :>

Going home Tuesday evening we saw a very largd Bald eagle sitting in a tree just above the used car lot in Mason.

Had a couple turkey buzzards hanging out in our meadow the other day, scary looking birds!

Hey BobG, long time no hear......

Are you sure that eagle wasn't sizing up all the dead cars in that lot?? hehe

Speaking of wildlife, this Teusday the ice went out on our lake northwest of Big Bay! It was still solid except at the edges the night before. 10 days before that a neighbor's friend went for a walk on the ice and all of a sudden was confronted by a pack of seven wolves between him and shore! He knew better than to run, so he just hollered and waved his arms? They came up to within thirty feet(as measured later from the tracks) of him, stopped for a while then turned and headed back to the woods. Moral of the story is to take your camera when you hike (and wear Depends!)

Mary: Bob White Quail (colinus virginianus) is a much smaller plumper bird of southern farmlands, hedgerows etc. If I had a nice photo of one I would post it but alas! "Bob Whites" in Michigan range only up to about the mid-LP. They are scarce in recent years in MI. Ruffed Grouse are not seen much anymore down here in the SELP!

Several of these showed up today at our feeders down here in St. Clair county. These real "genuine" Purple Finches (carpodacus pupureus) are usually only found in the UP or the NLP! What a treat for Troll land!

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i hope that bald eagle is checking out the red squirrels for dinner

Seeing that purple finch reminds me of all the birds we used to get at our house in Red Jacket. Such a wonderful treat to see how many different varieties of birds we could get to our feeders. Now I'm feeling homesick again.......

Great blue sky background on that partridge.
Good story about the wolves Don, what lake are you on up there?

great pictures good stories be well to all

Great Photo! We have been fortunate to see the Ruffed Grouse several times on the road up Brockway Mt. in Copper Harbor. Never had a chance to even grab the camera as they are very quick at disappearing!