Rick Horton, Regional Biologist, Ruffed Grouse Society

April, 2005 Forest Action Network

Spring has sprung here in the northland, but it's still Mud Season and there's not a lot to do for the sportsman.....or is there? Three of the most interesting breeding displays in the natural world are gearing up, woodcock peenting, ruffed grouse drumming and sharp-tailed grouse dancing.

The DNR invites the publicto view sharp-tailed grouse on their spring dancing grounds (also known as a lek). These once common birds of open brushlands put on quite a display in an effort to attract mates. The male Sharptails spread their wings in an arc, hoot and cluck, stamp their feet, rattle their tail feathers and madly chase each other around the lek. The blind is available 3 to 4 days per week from April 8 through May 1. The blind is comfortable for 2 people. Getting there requires about a quarter-mile walk. Morning visits to the blind can be reserved by calling: Palo Site Eveleth Area Wildlife Office 218 744 7448 ext 2224 or 2221, Kettle River Site – Cloquet Area Wildlife Office 218-879-0880 ext 225. Like most birds Sharp-tail Grouse are early risers. To see them on their dancing grounds you must be too. Dancers begin arriving about half hour before sunrise. To avoid bothering the birds you must settle into the blind well before then and stay until the birds leave, so plan accordingly. Plan on dressing warmly. It makes for very early morning, but you will enjoy a beautiful sunrise, and see and hear a memorable display of Minnesota's wildlife!

Woodcock have returned and are busy performing their spring breeding ritual, known as peenting. This practice occurs in the low light periods of early morning and late evening. Males venture into open grassy areas near shrubs or young forest and repeatedly make a nasal "peent" call. After a time they take flight and spiral above the opening, making a characteristic twittering noise with specially designed feathers on their wings. At this time an observer can safely walk closer to the peenting grounds. However, as the bird comes back to land it will utter a melodic warbling call, and you should stop moving so you don't frighten it. It will land and begin peenting again, repeating the cycle. In this way an observer can often get very close to the bird. Good locations for peenting grounds are old fields, power line rights-of-way, golf courses, Wildlife openings and some forests trails.

Ruffed grouse drum in every month of the year in order to protect their territories. But drumming peaks in late April and early May when the birds are trying to attract a mate. The low rumble is often mistaken for someone trying to start a tractor, but in fact it is caused by sonic booms when the grouse's wings are rapidly pumped back and forth in the air. Male grouse typically find an old log in dense brush to serve as their stage, allowing them to see approaching females, but still sheltering them from predators. The DNR has been using the number of drumming grouse heard on a route as a population index for over 50 years and will be starting to run those route soon. We sure hope to hear reports of increasing bird numbers soon! You can do this on your land or near your hunting areas, too. The key is to check the same areas first thing in the morning, at the same time of year, under the same weather conditions. Record the number of birds you hear in a 4 minute interval, then move on to the next stop. This will allow you to compare bird numbers from year-to-year.

The opportunity to give your dogs a spring tune up is rapidly slipping away. You cannot run dogs on wild birds after April 16. So get out this weekend and see if you can get a couple points on grouse and woodcock!

For the Birds

Spring is also a good time to see a lot of the songbirds returning north to breed. Keep your feeders full and watch for migrants in their breeding colorations! RGS is very active in songbird conservation on a number of fronts. There are entire suites of songbirds that need the same habitats as ruffed grouse and woodcock. A visit to your favorite hunting areas in the next month or so can provide glimpses of eastern towhees, mourning warblers, chestnut-sided warblers, American redstarts, field sparrows, and maybe even the increasingly rare golden-winged warbler! Society biologists are actively involved in state Bird Conservation Initiatives and Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy planning sessions. These efforts are to direct funding and efforts to help coordinate bird conservation activities and direct federal funding to those species in "Greatest Conservation Need". We are very concerned with the golden-winged warbler (GWW) across its range, but particularly here in Minnesota. We host 42% of the world's population of this colorful little bird, mainly in an area between Highway 2 and I-94. GWWs like much the same habitat as woodcock - shrubs, very young aspen clearcuts, few residual trees and edges of small shrubby wetlands. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has recognized the importance of Minnesota to the future of these birds and has asked us to investigate how we can double the population here. Towards that end, RGS provided $8,000 to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology last year to survey the distribution of golden-winged warblers and blue-winged warblers in Minnesota. We have pledged another $4,000 this year for a habitat sampling effort that will allow us to make better recommendations on management efforts to improve GWW habitat. RGS will be presenting at an upcoming international golden-winged warbler symposium in Siren, WI in August.

Habitat Projects

The Society makes every effort to get project on the ground and improve habitat for grouse and woodcock. Sometimes this is in the form of small projects that benefits local populations, but we would rather see more bang for the buck and do things that are going to benefit habitat over much larger areas. A couple of recent projects will serve as good examples. Some time ago we asked the MN DNR Division of Wildlife why there didn't seem to be an active timber management program on forested Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs). We discovered that in many cases they relied on the Division of Forestry to carry out these activities, and they were short-handed, so they focused more on the state forests. We asked how we could help. It turns out that in some cases the Division of Wildlife did not even have current basic forest inventories for some WMAs. It is difficult to plan habitat management when you don't have a good ideas what is out there. So we donated over $10,000 so they could hire contractors to inventory forests on 23 WMA throughout northern Minnesota. They will then be able to identifyold aspen stands in need of regeneration (into better habitat for grouse, woodcock, deer, etc.). The Division of Forestry is also backlogged with inventory work on state forests and we will be providing them with $35,000 in the near future.

Division of Forestry approached us with a plan to mark some hardwood timber in the Aitkin Area and said they would like to regenerate some small aspen clones within maple forest areas. This would maintain species and age class diversity in these stands, providing habitat for grouse and woodcock, but also places for forest interior songbirds to take their young to feed. We provided them with over $9,000 to contract someone to mark the boundaries of these inclusions and get them managed.

We have several interesting projects planned for the coming year. The Society, Purina and the national Fish and Wildlife Foundation have each pledged $10,000 to purchase a portable bridge for the Cass County Land department. This bridge will allow them to cross rivers and wetlands to reach timber that was previously unavailable for management. Afterwards it can be moved to other locations. We are also interested in a similar project with Koochiching County. Other plans include brush shearing in the Chippewa National Forest, access improvements with the DNR and many other efforts.

Upland Bird Camp

RGS has sponsored hundreds of kids at the Deep Portage Conservation Reserve Upland Bird camp near Walker, MN and this year will be no different. Deep Portage is excited about their latest addition to the reserve - a huge observation tower that takes visitors through the forest canopy to a point where they can see over the trees and view the whole forest. The Society has changed how we sponsor UBC. Instead of providing a few kids with full scholarships, we are underwriting the cost of the camp and reducing the price for all attended. his year the Camp will run from July 24-29 and is open to kids from 12-16 years old that have their MN Firearms Safety Certificate. Contact Deep Portage at 218-682-2325 for more information or to register.

Upcoming Events

April 14 - Grand Rapids RGS Banquet - Sawmill Inn
April 21 - Virginia RGS Banquet - Park Inn
April 28 - Duluth RGS Banquet - Holiday Inn
May 7 - Warroad RGS Banquet - Legion
May 10 - St. Cloud RGS Banquet - Green Mill
October 11-14 - National Hunt - Grand Rapids