Actually, just south of Sax-Zim Bog. The forests, farmlands and meadows near Sax-Zim Bog are full of courting gamebirds right now. If you go out early in the morning you are very likely to find Ruffed Grouse, Wild Turkeys … or in this case Ring-Necked Pheasants either defending habitat or courting their lady loves.
Ring-Necked Pheasant Walks on Water! (video link for email subscribers)
It was cold overnight … and there is no snow (unusual) to burrow down into for warmth … awaiting some warmth from the golden orb
If the post title sounds like the name of a new reality show, it is! Yesterday I was privileged to watch not one, but two twenty minute fights between Ruffed Grouse. It will soon be mating season in the Boreal Forest, and the male grouse which dominates its competitors in fights will be the bird that gets to control the best habitat and breed.
It was a good thing that no hawk, or other predator such as a bobcat / fox came by the battles. The intensity between the combatants was HUGE, and they had little attention for anything other than their opponent. If you hope to view this kind of fight, you need to drive remote back roads with little to no traffic. Nary another car drove by during each confrontation. I was ultimately able to approach within 20 yards of each fight, and never flushed the grouse. Everything ended when one bird finally gave up.
Battling Ruff Grouse of Northern Minnesota
The Movies (I suspect most people will prefer watching the two versions of video 2 which are much shorter … normal and slow motion speed)
I have provided 5 minutes, 40 seconds of via Video #1. The first video gives you a sense of how the grouse would move and posture for about 3 to 4 minutes before a quick, short intense fight. The fights are vicious. See the still images. The grouse on the left ultimately prevailed.
Videos #2 and #3 are excerpts … only 1 minute 40 seconds … and a slow motion of the same fight slowed down by 50%
Video #1: If you only want to see the fights, and not all the posturing / feinting skip forward to these times in the video (video link for email subscribers):
Fight #1 – 0:18 seconds
Fight #2 – 2:10 seconds
Fight #3 – 5:10 seconds
Video #2 – Normal Speed: 1 minute 6 seconds in duration … normal speed … fight at 40 seconds (video link for email subscribers)
Video #2 – Slow Motion at 50% Speed – 2 minute 8 seconds in duration … slow motion speed at 50% … fight at 1 minute 20 seconds (video link for email subscribers)
Still Images (photos taken of one fight in sequence … no more than two seconds)
These photographs are from the second fight. Thus, two totally different grouse than shown in the video.
Even the East German judge had to give my friend, the Northern Hawk Owl, a perfect 10.0! Two afternoons ago I drove over to Sax-Zim Bog and had a great time with the Northern Hawk Owl. The crowds have now left the Bog, and I had this experience all to myself! Thankfully, this owl is one of our last real northern birds to head back up into Canada. Often Northern Hawk Owls will hang out till around till early April. In addition, this is about the only raptor that I am not able to determine when it will takeoff. Finally, this bird is fast. Blink and it is gone.
Thus, while definitely there is a lot of skill involved in taking these images, I will not lie and must admit there is plenty of luck involved. One of my favorite podcasts is “How I Built This” from NPR with the host Guy Raz. At the end of each episode, he asks the entrepreneur whom he is interviewing: “What percentage of your success do you attribute to skill vs luck?” For the moment, I refuse to answer that question. LOL!
