The importance of quaking aspen as feed and cover for ruffed grouse is well documented. Often overlooked are other important variables. Some years back talking with Gordon Gullion (regarded by many as our grouse wizzard), I told him that most years grouse paid no attention to the highbush cranberry hedge in our yard, but one year they fed there the better part of the winter. I asked him if he'd ever observed yearly changes in feeding preferences. His reply, "Absolutly, one year the grouse totally abandoned aspen buds." He wasn't sure why, but suspected high phenolic content in the aspen as the cause. I am pleased to see an article on this subject in the fall '08 issue of The Ruffed Grouse Society Magazine by Bob Chambers. In fall, when they have a choice grouse appear to dine on a wide variety of fare. It would seem logical that they would do the same if it was available in the winter. I don't think a grouse habitat manager could go wrong in planting a wide variety of winter feed species in high snow cover regions.
A few more words on feed for birds in general. Other birds show the same ambivalence toward highbush cranberry, and the fruit often goes unused, but not always. A couple years ago we had a late spring, heavy snow storm that stayed for several days. The birds came in great numbers and variety and consumed them all in a day, the juniper berries as well, that usually go unused. In the week that followed I found a dozen dead birds around our nursery, I suspect victims of starvation. When I dug stock during that snow cover, birds would show up immediately where I had brought up the earth. When I would return for more stock they would not readily fly off. A meadow lark did not, and I later found it dead.
Michael Hradel
Cold Stream Farm
www.coldstreamfarm.net
