Partridge may be sleeping under all that snow

I was out snowshoeing with another birder in deep woods and also in deep, fluffy snow some two feet deep. The woods were beautiful – mostly large spruce and balsam fir, laden with snow. We were bushwhacking – that is, not on any trail.

It was hard going in the deep snow. We went through shrubby areas between the spruces. We took turns being leader, because it was hard to break trail. The leader sometimes fell, due to air pockets in the deep snow, created by shrubs or grass underneath.

Suddenly a large bird flew away and landed on a tree. It was mostly brown, with a crest on its head. It was a ruffed grouse, also called partridge. We kept on, but started to see many trails of grouse in the snow.

When the snow surface is firm, you see the grouses’ three-toed footprints, in a nice line. But when the snow is loose and deep and fluffy, due to large flakes, you don’t see grouse tracks. Instead, their feet are under the surface of the snow. You see two parallel lines where their legs have moved through the snow.

We saw where the grouse had been plucking off buds from low shrubs. And then we found a place where it had flown into the snow.

When the snow is deep and loose, and the nights are cold, grouse sleep under the snow. The temperature under the snow is significantly higher than in the cold air.

Grouse fly into the snow from a branch above. Perhaps that has survival value – a fox, bobcat or fisher could not follow its scent trail to where it slept. Predators sometimes do happen upon a grouse under the snow, but if the grouse flies into the snow, at least there is no trail to give it away.

About two feet from the place where the grouse flew into the snow, we saw where it came out. As it took off from the hole, it left its wing prints in the snow.

As we snowshoed on, we saw three different places where a grouse had flown into the snow, and had come out again. And we also saw a place where a grouse had flown down from a branch. We saw its tail-print and belly-print where it landed, and its trail where it walked away, deeper into the forest.

As we started snowshoeing back, we realized we had only a glimpse of a grouse, but through its marks in the snow, we had gained much insight into its life in winter.

For information on Fields Pond Audubon Center, call 989-2591.