Tale of a gregarious grouse
By V. Paul Reynolds
If I have learned anything over the years, it is these two Reynolds maxims: 1) It is always risky if you are a writer to assert that something is the biggest ever recorded, fish, fowl or game animal. 2) There is always an exception to the rule, most especially with wild critters.
David Minton, a deer hunter from Warner, NH, has had an encounter of the second Reynolds maxim kind.
Before I bare his tale, we need to first set the stage. Most wild things that I have hunted over the years have always proven to be wary, wily and exceedingly elusive. Ruffed Grouse are no exception, or so I thought. In the fall, whether road hunting or working the brush with a gun dog, the grouse I have known never hung around to check me out. These “thunder chickens” always flew like sidewinder missiles, weaving and jinking through the underbrush, often outrunning a load of number sixes. To say that these birds were skittish would be an understatement.
David Minton would have agreed with me, until one deer hunting day last November. The New Hampshire man was in his tree stand when a grouse dropped in for a visit. His words,”The bird walked under my tree stand and hopped into a hemlock… then it slowly, over the next 10 minutes, made its way up to my level where it sat and watched me while sitting on a branch, literally a foot and a half from me.”
The grouse hung around and Minton talked to it. This went on for a number of days. When Minton got down from his perch in the tree, the grouse followed him, “It proceeded to hop up onto the stump beside me and sat within six inches. It was emitting a sound, a cross between a cooing and what I can only describe as a quiet whining.”
Returning on the path to his home at dusk, Minton found the grouse following him. These visits from the gregarious grouse continued during Minton’s daily deer–hunting vigils in the tree stand, morning and night!
Minton told his grouse-encounter story in the February issue of the Northwoods Sporting Journal, complete with a photo of the grouse perched on Minton’s knee. The story sparked some naysayers who were skeptical.
For what it’s worth, Minton has shared with me a number of video accounts of him in the woods with his new found bird buddy on his knee and jumping up on his shoulder. The grouse looks normal in all respects. Most amazingly, the rendezvous with the grouse were still going on at this writing, long after the deer hunting season.
Minton confessed that he talks to the bird and that he began to enjoy this unexpected companionship and the repeated visits.” My wife thinks I am nuts,” quips Minton.
The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has authored three books. Online purchase information is available at www.sportingjournal.com, Outdoor Books.