| For The Times
A couple of months back, the boys and I headed up to Moraine State Park to do a little snapping turtle hunting. While we didn’t find any snappers that day, we had a great encounter with our state bird.
I hadn’t seen a ruffed grouse in a while, let alone shot one while hunting, so it was a bit of a surprise to find a bird as we walked back a trail to Muddy Creek. Even more exciting was that this grouse, as many are apt to do when I’m not hunting, decided we weren’t something to be afraid of and let us walk behind it for thirty or so yards before it reluctantly flew off. Avid grouse hunters know the paradox of the ruffed grouse, flushing wild and disappearing quickly when you are hunting them and half acting like barnyard fowl at other times.
Ruffed grouse were fairly common when I grew up and I shot quite a few in western Allegheny and Beaver counties. Since then, changing habitat, an increase in predators and more recently the West Nile Virus have reduced the population.
Many groups and people have been working to preserve the grouse populations over the years and Lisa Williams is Pennsylvania’s leader in the field.
Williams is the Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Biologist for grouse, woodcock, sandhill cranes and webless game birds. Williams was the first researcher to identify the connection between recent declining ruffed grouse populations and the West Nile virus. Prior to that, habitat loss was considered the primary reason for grouse population declines.
Williams was recognized this past September by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies for her work when she was named the recipient of the 2020 Ernest Thompson Seton Award.
Among other sources of information, Williams collects observational data from grouse hunters. In the most recent newsletter “In The Coverts,” Williams reports a mixed bag of hope for the ruffed grouse:
“For the first time in several years, I’m slightly optimistic about our upcoming season. Your flush rates last year ticked up 9% statewide, following the extremely mild summer of West Nile Virus disease in 2019. Hours hunted in 2019 per cooperator, grouse flushed, and grouse bagged all increased compared to 2018. Tempering my enthusiasm, 2020 grouse brood observations are once again disappointing. Game Commission foresters saw an average of 2.9 broods/100 days in June, which would be a new record low since the summer survey began in 1981. 2020 numbers are down 12% compared to the previous record low of 2019. We have got to get brood production up if we are going to sustain this population!”
A new study Williams is heading needs the help of all Pennsylvanians who spend time outdoors.
“The Pennsylvania Game Commission seeks dead or live (sick or injured) grouse for research. Grouse are declining in numbers and this research is important to help understand why,” Williams said.
If you find a disabled live grouse — sick, injured, or behaving oddly— immediately contact Williams at [email protected]. Be ready to provide detailed location information.
“If you have already captured the grouse, please place it in a small cardboard box and put it in a dark quiet room until it can be transported,” she said. “The grouse will have a small blood sample humanely drawn for a Conservation Genetics project. The grouse will then be relayed to Centre Wildlife Care for supportive care, with the goal of eventual release back to its original location. If a grouse is found dead, please label location of find and freeze until it can be retrieved.”
I’ll be heading up to Moraine and whether I just flush that grouse and watch it fly away or take my shot and be part of nature is yet to be seen. Either way, I’ll be doing more to help our state bird going forward.
Mike Barcaskey is an outdoors enthusiast and hunter and can be reached at [email protected].
