drumming grouse

Drumming Grouse Gets the Attention of a Cooper’s Hawk, Makes Explosive Escape

A drumming grouse on its display log garnered the unwanted attention of a Cooper's hawk. Here's the escape.

Here's some great trail cam footage of a drumming grouse on its home log. In the first 10 seconds alone you get to see an awesome look at what a male grouse does to mark his territory, and try to attract a mate.

In the natural world though, sometimes animals attract the attention of other creatures that they aren't interested in seeing up close. Enter a beautiful Cooper's hawk that would just love a ruffed grouse for lunch. Exit one thunderbird in a blur!

Here's the video:

And that's exactly why we hunt them, miss them more often than not, and keep coming back for more!

Yes, you had to wait until the 2:36 mark to see the escape, but honestly if I would have told you that, then you would have missed that glorious drumming.

Maybe the most amazing thing is the way you could tell that the grouse could see something that it didn't like. Even more so, it let the hawk light in the tree behind him for a moment!

Not to worry. That Cooper's hawk never had a shot did it?

NEXT: TRAIL CAMERA BATTLE: GROUSE VS. BOBCAT AND THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE WINNER