The very next day, following the appearance of my Gills Rock
grouse story in the paper, our friends Jerry and Karen Willey
stopped by for a chat and, upon hearing our grouse story got very
wide-eyed and exclaimed, "That must have been the very same bird
we stopped to photograph!" They were driving by in their car
when they saw the grouse, stopped, and Karen got out to try to
get a picture. Much to her surprise the bird did the exact
opposite of what they thought it would do. It came toward her
instead of running or flying away.
Within a week or so of our first encounter with the marvelous
little grouse, photographing it contentedly perched on Mrs.
Horskey's lap, and later that day, much to my overwhelming joy,
having it sit on my lap too, our nature class of around 25
Clearing students went in search of the dauntless "wild" bird.
You can imagine the students' ecstasy upon finding the ruffed
grouse casually walking and feeding along the edge of the road
within sight of Mrs. Horskey's home. Soon the class members
virtually surrounded the amazing but outwardly unconcerned grouse
and took one photograph after another, a most memorable occasion.
Late last September, 1997, we were having breakfast with several
friends including Charlotte and Bob Yeomans who live near North
Port, close to the extreme northern tip of the Door Peninsula.
Their exciting news was that a ruffed grouse, native to the woods
in which they live, had become unusually friendly with them,
trusting their approach to within several feet. Rather than
referring to the tame grouse day after day as "ruffed grouse"
they shortened its name to "RG" which in turn became "Reggie,"
their amazing resident grouse.
Here is the story as told by the Yeomans. "Reggie has been with
us, in the close vicinity of our house and particularly our
garage which is separate from the house, since late September of
1997. We remember that time because it was about then that Roy
Lukes' Nature-Wise column appeared in the paper describing a
similar ruffed grouse phenomenon regarding the lady in Gills Rock
who regularly fed the bird on her lap while sitting on a bench in
her back yard.
"We believe Reggie roosts at night in a grove of evergreens,
hemlocks and balsam firs, right next to the garage. This works
out well for the bird, since when we go somewhere in the car each
morning Reggie is put on the alert and emerges from his grove
too. Occasionally he will come to the house – to find out
what's going on – without showing up at the garage.
On several mornings he's flown up into a serviceberry tree near
the house, to a level even with our dining area, and looks in at
us while we're having breakfast. We believe he sometimes circles
the house to see if he can't connect up with us in whatever we
may be doing.
"Reggie permits us to lean over and extend our hands to within
four or five inches of his head. It is then that we can hear his
gentle purring and clucking, ever so soft, as though he was
communicating with us. Our son has grabbed him and lifted him
into the air before he flapped his wings and flew back to the
ground apparently unruffled.
"We have to take care to shut the automatic garage doors when we
exit from it, for one time when the door was left open he got in
without our realizing it and was trapped when we unknowingly
closed the door with him inside. Or course the floor of the
garage was an absolute mess when we discovered him the next day.
I (Bob) had to corner him and grab him with both hands, open the
door and throw him out.
"When we return by car from an errand he follows us on the
100-foot path from the garage to our front door and regularly
tries to come with us into the house. He did succeed one time in
sneaking in when I (Bob) was loaded down with packages. I
promptly cornered him and again gently threw him out the door!
"The men who occasionally come to deliver packages, fill the LP
gas tank, or pump out the holding tank all have had great times
getting acquainted with Reggie. We think they look forward to
arriving at our house. The UPS driver brought his camera one
day, and the next trip gave us two or three very nice photographs
of Reggie. Another driver had to stop his truck to avoid hitting
the bird, and told us he threw snowballs at Reggie to drive him
out of his way.
"We have sliding doors opening up onto our front yard. Whenever
we circle the house to enter and Reggie is around, he follows and
tries again to get in before we slide the door shut. His
reaction is to peck at the closed glass door for a minute or two.
"Reggie loves to go along with Bob when he uses the snow blower.
He walks in front of the noisy machine and doesn't seem to be a
bit afraid of it. He is also fond of Bob's big snowplow when he
does the road around our garage and home, and will follow it with
great interest. We think he is attracted to the noise.
"Before the snow came, Reggie seemed content to pick among the
leaves for seeds, insects, etc. With snow covering the ground,
he first fed on shrub and tree buds. More recently he's been
eating cracked corn which we regularly scatter on the ground for
the birds.
"Reggie accompanies Charlotte on her walks but goes only as far
as the "Y" in the road, a distance of several hundred yards,
where he stops and waits for Charlotte to return. It's as though
this is his territory boundary line over which he will not cross.
"Why does this wild species sometimes behave in this fashion?
We'd surely like to know what's going on here! If Reggie left us
now we'd really miss him!"
It was in early October of 1977 that my wife, Charlotte, and I
were introduced to our first "tame" ruffed grouse. An elderly
native, Mrs. Al Horskey, of Gills Rock in northern Door County,
had called alerting us to the trusting friendship that had
developed between her and a cock ruffed grouse that lived in the
woods adjacent to her cozy little log home.
Also see:
More information on this topic is available at:
This column appeared in the Door County Advocate on 01/30/1998.
© Copyright 1998 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.
