ROME, N.Y. -- Deer hunter John Page is becoming an ardent bird watcher this fall due to a wild, but extremely friendly ruffed grouse.
It all began during the opening week of the Northern Zone muzzleloading season (Oct. 17) when Page and his buddies were walking around and scouting for deer sign in the Sand Plains area, just outside of the city of Rome.
“I was figuring out where to set up my ground blind. When we got to a certain area, this ruffed grouse would appear and start following us, but never come too close. We’d try to approach it and it would just flutter away,” he said.
On Oct. 24, the start of the firearms season for deer in the Northern Zone, Page got up early that morning in the rain and set up a ground blind. He went home and returned to it that evening. He found the ruffed grouse near the blind, constantly circling it, “cooing and making other bird noises,” but keeping at least 10 yards away.
The following evening, the bird got bolder.
“I don’t know what to do,” said Page. “It just flew up and perched on the window of the blind, checking me out. It was fluffing its feathers and cooing at me. It was then that I thought that I should be recording it with my phone. Who would believe me?”
The following evening, the bird made its way inside the blind, walked on Page’s feet, hopped on his thigh and then started pecking at his camouflage hunting jacket. He gingerly picked the bird up and cradled the bird in his arm for “a good three minutes, stroking its head, trying to understand it.”
“You can’t make this stuff up,” he said.
A wild ruffed grouse at the entrance of deer hunter John Page's ground blind in the Sand Plains area near Rome, N.Y.
Page who tries to get out every late afternoon to his ground blind, said the bird, who he affectionately calls, “Mr. Ruffed Grouse,” has been there each time since.
Usually, ruffed grouse are skittish, “holding close to the ground and as you approach they suddenly take off, scaring the heck out of you,” he said.
Not Mr. Ruffed Grouse.
One evening as Page approach the blind, Mr. Ruffed Grouse fluffed up its feathers and started doing some kind of dance on the ground.
“As I got closer, it got more excited. I started cooing at him as I unzipped the blind. It just started going in and out of the blind, making that cooing noise,” he said.
Page said he doesn’t feed the bird, but conceded it has come inside his blind a couple of times and pecked at an apple core he put on the ground.
Page, 42, said he’s been hunting since he was “knee-high to a grasshopper” -- but never experienced anything like this.
“My grandfather started taking me out in the woods when I was around 8,” he said.
Mr. Ruffed Grouse seems determined to stick with Page this hunting season. Page, who tries to get out to his ground blind every afternoon after work, said the bird is always there at his blind. And if not, it responds quickly to Page making a clicking or cooing noise -- and suddenly appears.
Page’s friends have suggested that the bird is a reincarnation of his deceased grandfather, there to accompany him as he hunts for a trophy white-tailed deer.
“Hopefully, it’s good luck. I’d like to shoot a big buck with this bird by my side,” he said.
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Wild bird buddy: ‘Mr. Ruffed Grouse’ accompanies Upstate NY deer hunter in his blind (video) - newyorkupstate.com
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