Ruffed Grouse

Bonasa umbellus

When I realized I had an image of a Ruffed Grouse in my library, and no gallery to present it, a memory of my first 1976 meeting with the species sparked in me. I was living in Jawbone Flats, a ghost mining camp at Opal Creek and the headwaters of the Little North Santiam River. I worked for George Atiyeh, the nephew of former governor Vic Atiyeh and an activist who used mining laws and legal tactics to protect ancient trees surrounding Opal Creek. (George died in the September 2020 Beachie Creek Fire.) While hiking the hills above camp with my dogs, I heard the drumming sounds echoing through the dense forest. I never had eyes on the bird, but could only imagine the bird’s wing-beats pounding out the ever-accelerating rhythm on its chest. 

About 15 subspecies recognized:

• B. u. brunnescens lives on Vancouver Island and adjacent areas of British Columbia from Vancouver north to Kingcome River.
• B. u. castanea lives on the Olympic Peninsula and shores of Puget Sound south through w. Washington and probably the coastal fog belt of Oregon. 
• B. u. sabini lives in Sw. British Columbia (Chilliwack, Fraser Valley) southeast of range of castanea but west of Cascade Range through Washington and Oregon to nw. California. 
• B. u. yukonensis lives in Central Alaska east through Yukon Territory and sw. Mackenzie to n. Alberta (individuals of n. Saskatchewan and n. Manitoba not determined to race but probably this or next). 
• B. u. umbelloides lives in Se. Alaska and n. British Columbia east across central Alberta and central Manitoba to w.-central Ontario, extending south into w. Montana, e. Idaho, and extreme nw. Wyoming. 
• B. u. affinis lives in Central Oregon east of Cascade Range north through Washington and interior British Columbia. 
• B. u. phaia lives in Se. British Columbia south on western slope of Rocky Mtns. to s.-central Idaho and west to e. Washington and ne. Oregon. 
• B. u. incana lives in s. Saskatchewan, sw. Manitoba, and ne. North Dakota south through se. Idaho and nw. Wyoming to central Utah. 
• B. u. obscura lives in Central and n. Ontario east to central Québec. 
• B. u. labradorensis lives in Se. Québec-Labrador peninsula from Churchill River valley along southern Labrador coast and north shore Gulf of Saint Lawrence west to Havre Saint-Pierre, Québec. 
• B. u. mediana lives in the Midwest from e.-central Minnesota, s. Wisconsin, and sw. Michigan south to w. Tennessee and central Arkansas. 
• B. u. togata lives in Ne. Minnesota east across s. Ontario to Nova Scotia, south to n. Wisconsin, central Michigan, central New York, w. Massachusetts, and nw. Connecticut. 
• B. u. monticola lives in Se. Michigan and extreme s. Ontario to e. Pennsylvania (perhaps sw. and s.-central New York), south in Appalachian Mtns. to ne. Alabama (formerly) and n. Georgia, east to w. Carolinas, w. Virginia, and w. Maryland.  
• B. u. helmei lives in Long Island, New York. Although synonymized under nominate umbellus or regarded as the result of intergradation between umbellus and togata. 
• B. u. umbellus lives in Central New York and central Massachusetts south to e. Pennsylvania and New Jersey (at least formerly farther south to central Virginia).

My next meeting, in April 2022 came as I explored coastal Oregon near Pacific City. I’d stopped at Clay Myers State Natural Area on the good advice of a local birder. Before ascending the trails into the forested slopes above me, I heard call notes of Ruffed Grouse coming from behind the dense brush below the tall woods upslope. Alas, this was another unseen, but only heard bird.

Later on that expedition I wandered all the way to Whitehorse in the Canadian Yukon, then I crossed northern Alberta and found Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park on Lac La Biche. I spotted a lone Ruffed Grouse crossing the road ahead and managed a hasty photograph of  one of these elusive birds.