Northerly Treks: The Long Search That Deserved Long Enjoyment

As I was ready to go to sleep as I was camping at Scenic State Park on June 5th, I was preparing to wake up at 3 A.M. in the following morning and head to Sax-Sim Bog.  That's when a phone call came in from Josh, and I knew that he was calling about something very important.

I answered and Josh said, "Hey, there's this dense spruce bog area near Cook where my friend Julie has found to be very good for Spruce Grouse right along the road.  Over the years it has been a great spot, and I had great luck in the winter.  The grouse can be seen year-round along the road, and earlier today, someone had one in the middle of the afternoon.  I really think you should consider going there, Tommy."

Josh gave me directions for the more popular section of the area that was especially good for Spruce Grouse, and the distance of the stretch of road was under a half-mile long.  I looked it over and didn't know what to do about my itinerary.  What Josh suggested did seem like a strong bet, and I knew it was a strong bet.  He also told me that Julie had found Spruce Grouse at a handful of other locations.  After a few minutes, I had the thought that I could try for Spruce Grouse at the location that would take me about an hour-and-a-half to get to in St. Louis County, by the town of Cook, which is Josh's hometown.  While I figured the area obviously had potential for Spruce Grouse, that small stretch filled with many sightings over the years seemed like it could be magic.  A Spruce Grouse was something that I really wanted to see and before the trip, it was placed in a high spot when it came to the birds I had been wanting to lifer on most.  I came up with a quick side-plan that I would put Sax-Sim Bog off until the morning of June 8th, and would spend the morning of the 6th at the Spruce Grouse spot, and the remainder of the 6th and most of the 7th along the Gunflint Trail in Minnesota's Cook County.  The new plan seemed to be a solid one as I drifted off, and all I was doing was swapping things around and would still go everywhere I wanted to go.  I also considered Josh's timely call to be a sign that I needed to go to that spot to try for Spruce Grouse if I was going to succeed with them on the trip.

My alarm went off at 3 A.M. on June 6th, and I had gotten about 5 hours of sleep.  A few times during the night I did wake up and hear Barred Owls and Common Loons nearby.  I started to move around and get ready, and what I didn't realize was that I did something to turn the truck alarm on.  When I tried to open the vehicle (even from the inside) I set off the alarm, and it was loud.  I was smack-dab in the middle of a full campground, most of which were people tent camping around me.  The alarm continued to go off for what seemed to be forever before I finally figured out how to turn it off.  After that, I don't think I could've gotten out of a spot quicker, and I drove out of that campground that was probably full of tired people trying to get back to sleep.

The location I was going to for Spruce Grouse is east-northeast of Scenic State Park, and it took me about 1.5 hours to get there.  I got breakfast along the way, and I got to the spot not long after dawn.  The morning was brisk and I had my warmest jacket on.  Once turning off of Highway 115, I took Short Road to Johnson Road, and right at Johnson, I would walk a stretch of less than a half-mile along Johnson to look for Spruce Grouse.  When it comes to looking for Grouse, it can be lots and lots and lots of searching.

Spruce Grouse love dense coniferous forest, especially those with a lot of spruce.  I hoped that the search would go smoothly, and of course, I hoped I would find a grouse.  The route was taken very slowly, and I walked back and fourth along Johnson for what seemed to be forever without luck in the first few hours.  I looked on the forest floor when I could view it, on fallen logs, in dense clumps of wood, on spruce branches about 15 to 20 feet up, and anywhere else.  That's what Grouse birding is-challenging!  The bog I was birding in was like most, it was hard to enter or go into.  What was interesting about this bog was that both sides of the road had these natural "canal" like wetlands that bordered the bog.  These swampy bog parallels where two to three feet deep, and they were hard to enter or even cross.  Even though the walk I would be walking back-and-forth was less than a half-mile, it is still a ton of habitat to look through when looking for this bird.

Looking for Spruce Grouse represented a tough challenge.  Looking in many different spots per every few feet that I walked started to get a little old after I completed the second hour of my search.  I decided I would give the search at least a few more hours, and I planned to head to Cook County at 11 A.M.  The birding along Johnson Road was decent, as I had a Mallard family in the bog canals, Broad-winged Hawk calling, Black-backed Woodpecker calling, Yellow-bellied Flycatchers calling, Canada Jay, Black-capped and Boreal Chickadees, Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a big highlight in White-winged Crossbills flying over, White-throated Sparrow, Blackburnian Warbler, Palm Warbler, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  The only birds photographed was a young Canada Jay and a Palm Warbler.

young Canada Jay

Palm Warbler 

I continued to walk back-and-fourth on Johnson Road after it turned east from Short Road.  At one point I got sick of Johnson and walked north on Short for a few minutes just incase things could be switched up.  There was also a more open part of the bog nearby where Connecticut Warbler has been found.  I wanted to go out to the spot, but I decided to keep hunting for grouse.  When I reached the third hour of the search, I was starting to get a little bored and I started to really doubt that I was going to get a Spruce Grouse.  With all the empty searching, it was hard to believe that the bird existed.  It would be hard to find one of these birds in an acre of habitat.

I considered the luck I had previously had on the trip was something I was already thankful for, and although I was still gonna keep searching for grouse, I was prepared that I was gonna dip.  Sometimes I'd search the north side of Johnson Road, and other times I'd search the south side.  Both sides had good habitat, and after the three hours, I decided to walk Johnson and solely look into the bog south of the road.  When things look the same for so long, perhaps a difference in pattern sticks out a little more.  I thought this one shape stuck out a little and seemed odd to be a part of the tree (look lower in the tree at the object-looking thing sticking out on the right side of the tree).

When I walked a few feet further, the shape appeared more and more bird like.  It was a long couple of seconds.

The shape looked better and better as I went and as I raised my binoculars, I freaked out when I saw the result.

It was a male Spruce Grouse, and I couldn't believe it!

The grouse sat on the limb, which was about fifteen feet high.  It didn't move much other than looking around a few times.

In the grouse family, the genus Dendragapus, are three species referred to as forest grouse.  The trio consists of Spruce Grouse, Dusky Grouse, and Sooty Grouse.  All three of them are very hard to find because they are very tame-acting, and they'll sit feet away from people walking by without moving or making a sound.  Their abilities to blend in with their surroundings also makes them very hard to find.  As I lucked out with this bird, I decided that I would enjoy it for as long as I could enjoy it for.  At first, I didn't know how long that was going to be.  If it would've been on the ground and would've blended in with it's surroundings while I kept walking by and still carefully looking, I probably would've missed it.

After a few minutes of viewing it, I gave Josh the thumbs up that I was successful, and then Josh told our Minnesota buddy Steve Gardner that I got the bird.  Before my trip, Steve, who's never seen a Spruce Grouse said, "there's no way Tommy is gonna get that bird on the trip, not before I get it in Minnesota".  We got a good chuckle out it.

After about twenty minutes of viewing the Spruce Grouse, I put a marker down on the road to save the place where the Grouse was at, and then I went and got the truck, and parked the truck at the marker.  When I got back, the bird was still in the tree.  I had it in my mind to put my boots on and to cross the bog "canal".  When I put my boots on, I estimated that they are about two feet tall, and I started to get into the water.  After I put one foot in, I realized that the two foot height was going to run out of room very quickly.  The ground or whatever it was in the water was also unstable, and I figured it wasn't worth going into.  It all would've been an attempt to get closer to the Spruce Grouse, who would've likely been very tame and continued to sit at his exact spot.

When I went back to the truck to put the boots away, a man drove up to me and curiously asked what I was looking at.  I told him, "A Spruce Grouse!", and when I pointed out the branch to him, I was shocked to see that the branch was vacant in that amount of time.  When I started to talk to the man again, he kept his eye on the tree and exclaimed, "there it goes".  I looked back up to see the movement as it carried toward the ground.  The man then said, "it looked like there may have been two of them in there!".  I wondered if there were indeed two and that the male had his mate tucked in close by.  The guy proceeded to say, "they are awesome birds.  I see them every-once-in-awhile when I drive through here, not too often.  One time I saw a group of seven of them!".  After the guy drove off, I had been watching the grouse for about 40 minutes.  It was awesome, and I was stoked at what I got.  But I continued to walk back and fourth for short distances of twenty to thirty feet.  I figured the grouse didn't go far, but the immensely dense habitat is hard to find birds in as they blend into their surroundings incredibly well.  As I scanned, I saw the shape and picked him out again.  He was covered up very well at this point, but it was awesome to watch him stand there in one spot for about twenty minutes.

Perhaps Spruce Grouse and other forest grouse are as chill and slow moving as they are is because their diet mainly consists of conifer needles.  While the conifers stay in one place at all times, I guess the grouse does a lot of that too.  Spruce Grouse will also eat leaves, berries, flowers, insects, snails, and fungi.  Although this guy stayed sitting in the same spot for a long time, he started to walk in one direction in which was my way!

As I was facing south, he turned and walked in the direction west of me after coming more toward me, and he had come half as close as he was before.  It was an awesome thing to watch as he walked along, and at times the views were out in the open.

Even though Spruce Grouse are year round and hardy residents in Minnesota the rest of their range in North America that keeps extending northward, they are most easily found by birders in winter.  When snow is on the ground, an early morning drive on roads in appropriate habitat will more-often-than-not result in Spruce Grouse feeding on buds along the roadsides.  On many roads in Minnesota during winter in good habitat is how many birders have come to get their life bird.  I was happy with my sighting, and I really like to find things in the breeding season.  After foraging slowly and sitting on the forest floor for some time, the Spruce Grouse came a little closer to me and really sat out in the open.  He was probably less than twenty feet away from me at this point, and sat on a low limb for some time while facing in several directions.

There are two main groups of subspecies of Spruce Grouse in North America.  The one we are looking at here on my blog is of the Taiga group, which has a bigger population than the other.  That other is the Franklin's race, and that race is found in the northern Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Mountains of the pacific northwest.  There are notable differences between the two groups that are obvious, and some authorities argue that the two groups are separate species.  If a split does occur, seeing this bird makes me want to see another one, or maybe really another one in the Cascades.  One time I looked for one in the Cascades with my buddies Walker and Khanh without success.  Back to Johnson Road, the star-of-the post, and me, we all still remained there in one spot.  Nobody hardly moved.

My attempt to point the Spruce Grouse out didn't work too well!

What he did next for the remainder of the time I observed him was awesome.  He got down on the ground, and gave himself some sort of dust bath while digging in the ground to seemingly create some sort of burrow or roosting spot.  Despite that I was still so close, this epic bird known for it's tameness while being being in such wild areas blew me away.  Every once-in-awhile, I threw my fist in celebration that I was hanging out with a Spruce Grouse.  That never made him move either.

Imagine walking by him with his head in the ground the whole time, it would be really easy to miss!

When I started looking for Spruce Grouse on Johnson Road, it was before 6 A.M.  After looking and looking at branches, limbs, trees, on fallen logs, and scanning forest floor for over three hours it became more and more difficult to keep searching.  Right around 9 A.M. was when I found this bird, and my original plan was to leave at 11 A.M. to head toward Cook County's Gunflint Trail in extreme northeast Minnesota.  As I looked down at my watch, it was already 11:20 A.M.  I was thankful to spend over two hours with an epic, cool-looking, and chill bird like the Spruce Grouse.  When he seemed locked up for the next few upcoming hours at one spot on the ground, I figured it was time to start heading to Gunflint on a great, memorable note.

A huge thanks goes out to my buddy Josh Wallestad, who's phone call was a clutch one.  Next on Northerly Treks is a journey to a different zone!