In the dimming light of approaching dusk last evening, I walked down the steep hill from our house with the intention of collecting mail from our mailbox. At the base of the hill, I stopped in my tracks, having spotted a broadly fanned avian tail through a screen of blackberry canes. I crept forward until a male ruffed grouse strutting on the rough road was revealed in all his spring glory. Flaunting his masculinity with shoulder ‘ruffs’ puffed out, crest feathers erected, and that stunning tail expanded to its utmost, he glanced over his shoulder at me and, as befitting a male of such extravagant machismo, slowly and majestically strolled off the road and into dense shrub and cane growth at the roadside.

Leaving the male to his mating display, I crossed our bridge across Matheson Brook and startled a female ruffie striding vigorously toward me, or more likely, toward the male. She scuttled into roadside vegetation and then burst into flight, her wings pounding the air in a roar.  It seems I interrupted a courting rendezvous.

Ruffed grouse inhabit our mixed woods throughout the year, and I’ve spotted birds near the brook in all seasons. Each spring, male ruffies drum their mating call with cupped wings clapped against the air, increasing ever faster until a blur of sound suddenly halts, the entire sequence to be repeated at more or less regular intervals. This I have heard often, yet I’ve never observed a male drumming, and last evening was the first time I had spotted a male flaunting his beauty in a bid to attract mates. That he was successful, I have no doubt.