aggressive male spruce grouse at Speckled Mtn summit

vftt.org

Help Support vftt.org:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

RichS

Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2013
Messages
112
Reaction score
2
Location
Westford, MA
When leaving the summit of Speckled Mtn Saturday (5/20), this guy was blocking the trail. Since he wasn't budging, I got good pictures. When I tried to pass, he was all "No way!" Flew up and flapped his wings against my knee. No beak action, thank goodness. Did it four times until I was 20 feet past the first location. I knew they were territorial, but geesh!
My last grouse encounter was on the Basin Trail when a female exploded out of the brush as I passed. If my boots weren't laced tight, I would have jumped out of them!

Look at the grouse!

BTW, black flies were no problem in the morning, but the lower I got in the afternoon, the nastier they got. Saw smart backpackers with head nets.

related thread: Agressive Male Spruce Grouse near Middle Carter

1705201348Grouse2Crop.jpg
 
Thats a really good pic showing the red eyebrows.

Re: black flies. Stopped at The Brickett place to see the operating hours. The black flies were so bad, they chased me back into the car after about 30 seconds on Sunday. Saw a couple hikers exiting the trail with armd flailing. That was funny.
 
It seems to be a common phenomenon at this time of year. I was sitting at the junction of the Garfield and Garfield Ridge trail once when a male approached me warily. Then he flew at me, pecked the my sleeve briefly, and departed. I assume it means there was a female sitting on a nest in the underbrush somewhere nearby.
 
It's fairly common as they are quite territorial. Now that I hike with my dog, I see less of this stuff. I'd be curious to see if a grouse would fear my dog enough to let us pass, unchecked? It would be a site, my Aussie Bud is no slouch in regards to being territorial, lol.:eek:
 
Top