providing for grouse

[borrowed time]

Hi everybody, I'm getting ready to do some planting on our land in northern Wisconsin and have this tip for anyone that wants to improve the grouse habitat. I found this out by accident, when I had my gravel guy dump a half load of road gravel on the side of a lane in our woods to patch holes in the road. The partridge and turkeys started hanging around this area more than they ever did. They need grit to digest food and this supplements the need without going to a public road. We have made another small pile further into the woods, try this, easy and cheap.

[Land_Owner]

Great tip.  I have seen many bird seed bags with grit in them.  Who would have thought that simply rock would be a wild game attractant?  Send some my way.  It is nothing but sand here.

[kiddekop]

Hi everybody, I'm getting ready to do some planting on our land in northern Wisconsin and have this tip for anyone that wants to improve the grouse habitat. I found this out by accident, when I had my gravel guy dump a half load of road gravel on the side of a lane in our woods to patch holes in the road. The partridge and turkeys started hanging around this area more than they ever did. They need grit to digest food and this supplements the need without going to a public road. We have made another small pile further into the woods, try this, easy and cheap.

American Wildlife & Plants  A  Guide to Wildlife Food Habits: the use of trees,shrubs,weeds and herbs by birds and mammals of the united states by Alexander C Martin   Herbert Zim & Arnold I Nelson.I bought this paper back when I was getting my degree in wildlife mgt at the univ of az in the 1960's it's out of print but occasionally copies become available on barnes and noble.I let several of the hunters in the probation dept where i was employed read this and several of my manuals on western game food habits.I did crop analysis on gallinaceous birds & rumin analysis on deer,elk,etc to find out exactly what they browsed on.Wisconsin has Bonasa umbellus food habit via crop analysis: quaking aspen bud,hazelnut catkin, white clover, wild cherry, birch catkin,dogwood berries ,beadruby,sumac,nightshade elderberry ,strawberry,rose.The grit is used to grind their seeds,insects,plant material,etc so they can digest it.

[borrowed time]

Wish I could plant some crabapple for grouse, but even if they survive the deer browsing, when they are larger and bear fruit, the bear tear the trees to pieces to get fruit. I have seen one and one-half to two inch limbs torn off of white oak trees to get nuts, apple trees or wild cherry take a beating. With the current format for bear hunting in Wi we have way too many bears, and I don't care to shoot one.

[Blue Duck]

The Aspen is a good choice and easy to transplant because of its shallow roots.  It grows fast and the grouse love them and can feed in safety in the tree tops and when there is snow on the ground.  If you have Aspen growing wild in your area, you can dig up trees up to 6 -8' tall with just a shovel easily and transplant it to where you want...

[borrowed time]

Actually, where our land is we have aspen growing all over the place, quite naturally. When a clear-cut is done, the shoots that come up are off the present root system that can live for hundreds of years if a few adult trees survive. Some biologists are of the opinion that the grouse cycles are caused by a chemical put out in the buds of popple trees when the grouse eat too many of the tree's buds. Sort of a protection system. In the area I live we don't have much popple and we do not have the big drop in bird numbers like the north does, but we don't get the big increase either.

[KAYR1]

The grouse seem to love sumac here in Northern NY. I have seen them feeding and roosting in the tops in winter. Sumac grows like weeds around here, and I have to chop some back off the lawn. If it grows in your area, they are easy to do, and spread like crazy