Friday afternoon, while getting a ladder from behind my garage, I noticed movement in a patch of shrubby evergreens that marks the property line with my neighbor.

What I saw at first looked like a skinny chicken.  As it bobbed out of the thicket into view; I could see it was a grouse.  A closer, second look showed it to be a Spruce Grouse.  I spooked it and it flew up into a tangle of stunted spruce trees where it perched, clucking away.  I watched  t for about 5 minutes until I had to leave.

That evening I mentioned it to my wife and she said she had seen a "chicken looking bird" fly out in the morning when she went out to start her car.

I've seen a number of Spruce Grouse while hiking at higher elevations in the White and Green Mountains, but this was my first "urban bird..."

Location: West side of Woodstock Village, near the "Rec Center Bridge," ~50 yards north of Rte 4. 


Otto