COUDERSPORT, Pa. — The rustling came quietly enough that I figured a deer was trying to sneak past. In my tree stand, I turned slowly and saw nothing.
In early October, I joined college friend Wayne Martin and Cal Esh, my best friend from high school, in northern Pennsylvania to bowhunt for deer. No deer, but we did real talking, an advantage of growing older.
From the stand, I finally saw a brown bird scuttling around. Behind it, a ruffed grouse fanned out in all its glory. They were so intent on each other that I could dig my cell from my camouflage and take multiple photos.
Ruffed grouse hold my heart. The first magazine article I sold (Pennsylvania Game News) was about my first grouse, which I bagged while holed up in a cabin, kidding myself that I could write a hard-boiled Mennonite detective novel.
Memories boiled up.
I love how shockingly loud grouse sound when busting from cover, how loud drumming on logs (think a gas lawnmower) sounds.
I came to Illinois nearly 40 years ago, when there was still a chance to see a grouse, but I never did. In 2020, the Illinois Ornithological Records Committee changed the status of ruffed grouse in Illinois to extirpated.
In the Chicago area, they were gone long before. According to Joel Greenberg in ‘‘A Natural History of the Chicago Region,’’ from notes in the Illinois Audubon Society’s ‘‘Bulletin’’: ‘‘The last published record [of ruffed grouse] was flushed on May 7, 1932, near the Des Plaines River close to where Devon Avenue crosses it in Park Ridge.’’
Back in my single days, I would visit a friend in southern Indiana. While hiking and fishing there, I could hear them drumming and occasionally spot one fanning. In southern Indiana at the time, the population was strong enough to have a hunting season. But landscape changes hurt populations.
The Indiana DNR closed its grouse season in 2015. By 2020, ruffed grouse were moved to ‘‘state endangered.’’
Michigan and Wisconsin still have viable populations.
May I live long enough to hear a report of ruffed grouse in the Shawnee or in Illinois’ sliver of the Driftless Area.
Wild things
While I’m enjoying the weirdly warm weather, I’ve had enough of afternoon ladybugs.
Stray cast
If Michael Kopech gets the final save in the World Series, I’m going wade into . . .