Momma grouse video

[ouchfoss]

Heres video I got of a blue grouse hen trying to protect her only chick. Ive been wanting to get out and get some audio of a noisy hen for predator hunting because I can garantee that bobcats and coyotes know exactly what that squawking sound is and I could imagine it could be successful in calling them in or at least make them continue coming if they have held up. This hen wasnt quite as vocal as I've heard before but I still got some useable audio from her as well as that cheaping from the chick too. 
Kinda cool to see that tactics and communication between the hen and the chick. The hen never made one sound until that chick started peeping and never moved at all until the hen was right up there in my face distracting me to look her direction.
I'm thinking that grouse have had a hard spring around here considering that all the grouse I have seen as well as what other people have seen this year have very few chicks. One hen I saw last week had two and several my dad has seen had two at the most.

Blue grouse hen with chick







 

[rasbo]

cool clip thanks for posting it

[CAMPMEAT]

Cool, thanks for sharing something most people won't see. 

[hrd2fnd]

To cool

[Heredoggydoggy]

Very cool!  I've noticed with the Quail I have here, and when I had Banty Hens around, that chick mortality is high if there's rain right when the chicks hatch.  One small rain shower and the chicks get wet and hypothermic.  They die in less than a minute!

[ouchfoss]

It does seem like we have had a more wet than normal spring. For as new as that chick is, I would bet that he  is a little more than a week, maybe two weeks old and it has definetly been crappy locally almost every day of that period of time.

[RoyBoy]

cool clip thanks for posting it