DULUTH — The number of male ruffed grouse heard drumming in April and May as part of their spring mating ritual was up again this year in the Northland, signaling a continued higher population, but a soggy June may have reduced this year’s crop of young grouse on the landscape.

A male ruffed grouse “drums” or beats its wings on its chest to attract a mate in spring. The 2024 drumming count across the ruffed grouse range in Minnesota was the highest since 1972, but a wet June may have reduced the number of newly hatched chicks, which will impact the overall population. (Courtesy of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department)

That’s the word from the Minnesota and Wisconsin departments of natural resources, along with other biologists and grouse enthusiasts who have spent time in the woods this spring and early summer.

The spring drumming counts, conducted before the rains came hard, showed that a good portion of last year’s thriving population of grouse managed to survive over a winter with little or no snow.

That lack of snow could have been a disaster because grouse usually burrow in deep snow at night to escape cold temperatures and predators in winter. Instead, grouse had to nest in trees, but were not subject to much extreme cold and apparently survived just fine

In Minnesota, the drumming survey — where biologists stop at predetermined locations across the grouse range to listen for male grouse beating their wings — hit 2.3 drumming birds per stop across their entire range, up from 2.1 last year and way up from 1.3 in 2021, now believed to be the low year of the bird’s mysterious 10-year cycle in Minnesota.

This year saw the highest drumming count in Minnesota since 1972.

Northeastern Minnesota saw 2.7 drums per stop, compared to 1.6 in the central region. But northwestern Minnesota has been seeing fewer ruffed grouse of late, with just 0.66 drums per stop this year, down from 1.5 in 2023 and 2.9 in 2022. Charlotte Roy, Minnesota DNR grouse research biologist, said it’s unclear why the northwestern grouse population is declining while it is increasing elsewhere in the state.

In Wisconsin, the 2024 drumming survey was up a startling 60% in the north from 2023 and up 41% in the central regions but down 56% in the southwest where declining habitat has been a problem for decades.

In the north, the 2.32 drums per stop heard this year was up from 1.45 drums per stop in 2023, the highest since 2011. In northern counties, 34 routes saw increases in drumming, eight saw declines and 10 were unchanged from 2023.

Last year, biologists and hunters in both states agreed that grouse had perfect nesting conditions with a warm and dry spring that spurred high survival of young grouse. That’s especially important for hunters because surveys show nearly two-thirds of all grouse that hunters shoot each season were hatched that same year.

“The late spring and summer of 2023 were abnormally dry, which resulted in prime nesting and brooding conditions for ruffed grouse,” said Alaina Roth, Wisconsin DNR ruffed grouse specialist. “This is likely the most influential factor explaining the increase in the number of drumming grouse this year. We are also likely entering the ‘up’ phase of our 10-year population cycle, which may be an influencing factor, too.”

Ruffed grouse, for reasons still not fully understood, typically follow a 10-year population cycle.

Wisconsin biologists believe their cycle peaked earlier, dropped and is now on the rise again, set to peak by about 2029. Minnesota drumming counts show a continued rise in drumming for several years, with no recent drop yet.

For more information regarding grouse hunting or managing habitat for ruffed grouse in Wisconsin, visit dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/hunt/ruffedgrouse.

Heavy rain tough on chicks, but some have survived

Many ruffed grouse enthusiasts were concerned in June when multiple heavy rains hit much of the region, more than 3 inches in many areas and up to 9 inches in one downpour across parts of Minnesota’s Arrowhead.

A wet June, when grouse hatch and fledge, sometimes means that grouse chicks perish from exposure, drowning or other complications. Biologists say some of that probably did occur, but maybe not as bad as expected. Many people in the woods say they are seeing at least some grouse chicks that persevered.

Roy said she had been concerned that the rains were too much for small grouse but that she has been hearing “decent brood reports, too, so hoping that continues.”

“While ruffed grouse drumming counts are high in the core of ruffed grouse range, indicating a strong breeding population this spring, drumming counts are not an accurate way to predict the birds that will be present during the fall hunting season,” Roy said. “Nesting success and chick survival during the spring and summer are among the factors that influence the number of birds present in the fall. These factors can be reduced by heavy rain during June when nests are hatching and chicks are young.”

Bailey Peterson, a grouse hunting enthusiast and Minnesota DNR wildlife manager, said she didn’t see as many young grouse early in the summer as expected considering the non-winter and early spring.

“But I did see a brood of teenagers two days after the 7.5 inches of rain fell here, on a road that was closed for a washout, so I take that as a decent sign of hope,” she said. “A few co-workers have seen broods of short fliers in the last week. It’s not going to be outstanding but it’s not a total failure of a brood year either at this point.”

Mike Amman, a forester for Ashland County and a grouse hunting enthusiast, said the spring and early summer have been incredibly wet. But he said the high drumming counts showed there were plenty of birds to start the year.

“I am assuming we lost a decent number of chicks to the wet weather, but having said that, I am still seeing broods of grouse. Most are one-third-to-half grown already,” Amman said. “I haven’t seen a ton of broods but … when I have been out, I have seen some … averaging about one to two broods a day in decent cover.”

Greg Kessler, Wisconsin DNR wildlife manager in Douglas County, said several upland bird species may see fewer chicks survive the heavy rains, including grouse, turkey and woodcock, which may stall or even reverse what had been a few years of population increases.

Debbie Petersen, grouse and woodcock expert who has spent a lot of time in the woods this spring and early summer conducting breeding bird surveys, said she has seen some decent-sized broods, although that was before the most recent round of heavy rain.

“I saw the most broods up by Wirt (in Itasca County). I had one half-mile stretch of trail there where I encountered three separate very young broods. Each had six to 10 chicks,” Petersen noted.

Minnesota sharptails up in northwest, east-central regions

Minnesota’s northwest sharp-tailed grouse population is higher this year than last year and the highest it’s been since 2009, according to spring population counts conducted by the Minnesota DNR and cooperating organizations.

A male sharp-tailed grouse dances in the spring of 2019 on his mating territory, called a lek. The number of sharptails seen at leks was up in 2024 in Minnesota. (Steve Kuchera / Forum News Service)

The number of grouse seen per lek, or dancing area, hit 15.9 birds this year in the northwest, up from 12.4 last year.

The population level remains low in east-central Minnesota, including Pine, Carlton, Aitkin and St. Louis counties, but is up from crippling-low numbers a few years ago. This year, 11.8 grouse were counted per lek, up from 8.0 in 2023 and considerably higher than the lowest-ever count of 4.8 in 2012. Sharptails were counted at 25 areas in the east-central region, down from more than 80 areas in the 1980s and hundreds in the mid-1900s.

The Minnesota DNR closed the sharptail hunting season in the east-central zone in 2021 due to chronically low numbers compared to a half-century ago. The season will be closed again this year.

Lower population levels in this area in recent decades are thought to be driven largely by changing habitat conditions. The birds require vast areas of 1-3 square miles of open grassland and brushland, without crops or trees, so managing their habitats often requires cooperation between multiple landowners.

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It’s time for the little ones to slow down after the recent long holiday weekend with picture books that are fun and teach a few lessons, although the smalls won’t realize they are learning.

(Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers)

“A Family Tree”: by Staci Lola Drouillard, illustrated by Kate Gardiner (Clarion Books, $19.99 on book jacket; $15.99 on publisher’s website)

What a beautiful and important book for children of all ethnicities. Drouillard, a descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe, tells a tender story about a little girl who is the same age as a spruce tree sapling on her grandparents’ land:

“The tree, like Francis, grew slowly. While Francis learned to walk on two little feet, the spruce tree walked in her own way — stretching her roots out into the ground, where they talked to the roots of the other trees in the garden.”

Eventually Grandma and Grandpa grow too old to keep up their property and have to move. Francis worries that the new owners might not understand that trees talk to each other underground, or that mother trees help keep their little ones strong by feeding the saplings with their own roots. And so the family decides to take the young spruce with them to plant at Auntie’s home where the grandparents will live. Grandpa plants it facing North, its former home, and soon the little tree is taller than Francis. She decorates her friend with bright lights in winter, celebrating the family’s connection to the trees, rocks and water of far northern Minnesota.

In an author’s note Drouillard, who lives in Grand Marais, writes that the book is based on the true story of a tiny white spruce that once lived in Grand Portage and now puts out new buds every spring from the safety of her yard. She gives a brief summary of the history of the Ojibwe people and their connection to the land from which they were removed.

“For Ojibwe people, losing access to our traditional homelands is like losing one’s place in the cyclical world of natural things,” she writes. “But, like the little spruce tree, we continue to adapt and change while retaining the wisdom and knowledge of the forest, which was taught to us by our elders, who learned from those who came before them.”

Drouillard, who won a Minnesota Book Award for “Seven Aunts,” sprinkles words from the Ojibwemowin language in the story, with a glossary at the end. This is also a physically beautiful book, with Kate Gardiner’s clean-lined, contemporary artwork in subdued colors of nature that sometimes wrap around the text or complement one line on a page. Gardiner is a New England-based illustrator with Native roots.

(Courtesy of Nancy Paulsen Books)

“Loaf the Cat Goes to the Powwow”: by Nicholas DeShaw, illustrated by Tara Audibert (Nancy Paulson Books, $18.99)

Loaf, the cat, loves living with “his boy.”  One day, there was lots of ribbon around for him to pounce on: ” ‘This is my regalia, Loaf. I’m going to be a grass dancer at the powwow,’ my boy told me. He began to jump and spin around.”

Loaf senses there is something big going on in his boy’s life, and when the family leaves he jumps out a window and follows them to the powwow grounds. He watches the Grand Entry, hears the honor song for veterans accompanied by the host drum, and is proud when his boy is welcomed as the newest grass dancer: “The ribbons that I like moved with him so fast!/It was so good! I loved to see him!”

In the end, the boy and the purring cat snuggle down and take a nap.

This is the debut picture book from DeShaw, who lives in St. Paul. An Anishinaabe, he is a father, educator and traditional lacrosse coach. Illustrator Audibert, of Native and French lineage, enhances the light-hearted text with endearing characters with huge eyes and mouths. And Loaf does look exactly look like a loaf of brown bread.

(Courtesy of Free Spirit Publishing)

“Quiet Violet Finds Her Voice”: by Gabrielle Nidus, illustrated by Stephanie Dehennin (Free Spirit Publishing, $18.99)

Violet likes to blend in so nobody at school notices her. But she’s confident in the kitchen, which is lucky because when a hands-on lesson about measurement goes haywire, Violet is the only one who can save a celebrated chef from an awful encounter with a very salty cookie. The author lives in Houston, and the illustrator in the Flemish countryside. Their book is part of Minneapolis-based Free Spirit Publishing’s 19 mental health kindergarten, first/second-grade series by different authors.

“Birth of the Bicycle: A Bumpy History of the Bicycle in America 1819-1900”: by Sarah Nelson, illustrated by Iacopo Bruno (Candlewick Press, $18.99)

(Courtesy of Candlewick Press)

This lively book begins with wooden velocipedes of the 1800s and concludes with the sleek machines that today have their own dedicated lanes in some cities, including St. Paul and Minneapolis. The author traces the bike’s journey from a luxury for the wealthy to a necessity for the working class. Illustrations are wonderful, from the top-hatted gentlemen riding bikes with big front wheels in 1819 to the 1868 carnival act with men balancing bikes on the high wire and the first fashionable garments for bicycle-riding women.

Sarah Nelson writes children’s books in prose and poetry, including “Frogness” and “A Park Connects Us,” inspired by St. Paul’s Lake Como. Bruno is an Italian graphic designer whose illustrations for “Birth of the Bicycle” capture the past.

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Hmmmmmmmm

GRANDMA PAT, “formerly of rural Roberts, Wisconsin, now of St. Paul”: “I do not have to do any puzzles in my old age. There are enough as it is.

“For instance: A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on my fourth-floor balcony under a clear blue sky. Two adult granddaughters and a grandson-in-law had come over with tacos. As we sat at the table laughing and talking, a silent gust of wind came and lifted the big table umbrella straight up in the air, out of the heavy base, then out of the small opening in the table. It didn’t knock over anything — not even the tall green San Pellegrino bottle. It continued upward for several feet, then tipped sideways. The umbrella closed, and went speeding over a 6-foot privacy wall and landed on the roof of my next-door neighbor’s apartment. After a few minutes, it slid down onto her balcony. Luckily, it did not hit any of us, and my neighbor was safely away at choir practice.

“I wonder: Is there such a thing as fourth-floor turbulence? Is there any scientific explanation at all? If not, then I guess I’ll just have to go with Mary Poppins — or perhaps a poltergeist. It’s a puzzle!”

Our inflatables, ourselves . . . Independence Day Division

GREGORY J. of Dayton’s Bluff: “There aren’t many outdoor inflatable decorations for the Fourth of July, so I created my own. I used the Svengoolie inflatable that I originally put up for Halloween and later repurposed for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“I bought the Uncle Sam hat at Michaels Arts and Crafts. When I went to check out, the nice cashier asked me if I was going to wear the hat myself. I told her I was not. Then she wanted to know what I was planning to do with it, because they enjoy hearing what their customers do with the items purchased at the store.

“She asked for it, so I explained that I had an inflatable Svengoolie Halloween yard decoration that I was adapting for the Fourth of July. I further explained that Svengoolie was a horror-movie host on MeTV. Remember that line from ‘A Christmas Story’ when adult narrator Ralphie said that his family looked at him like he had lobsters crawling out of his ears? Well, that was the look I was getting from the cashier and her trainee.

“But then, the woman behind me in line yelled out that she loved Svengoolie and her family watched him every Saturday night. There was another kindred soul. I was vindicated.”

This ’n’ that

From AL B of Hartland: (1) “I hate to brag, but I have a lot of pennies. I’m no billionaire, but I’ve found a penny goes a long way if I never spend it.

“I was introduced to the world of high finance by a coffee can that became my piggy bank. I grew up with real pigs and a piggy bank that looked nothing like a pig. I spent a few months in a hospital when I was a boy, and family members, friends and neighbors gave my parents silver dollars for me. My parents refused to sell me for my salvage price and put all those silver dollars into a coffee can, which was later stolen from our home.

“Now I toss coins into a jar. I make it rain! The jar fills and is carted to the local bank, which has a fancy coin-counting machine.

“Bills promise everything and coins promise little, but I can still make a big decision by flipping a coin.

(2) “I watched a coyote. If coyotes would fetch a stick and slobber on a tennis ball, they’d be widely loved.”

Muse, amuse . . . Plus: Now & Then

THE DORYMAN of Prescott, Wisconsin: (1) “Subject: ‘Sorry, Officer, we gotta go.’

“The latest cartoon in my head shows a couple pulled over by the Highway Patrol. The driver tells the Trooper: ‘I was speeding because my wife needs to use a restroom, so can she wait in your car while you write the ticket?’”

(2) “Subject: Lost but not completely forgotten.

“A minor transgression of a friend and neighbor caused a sunken response to bubble to the surface today. It was a long-dormant, flippant expression of my adolescence that would probably seem entirely new to those not Older Than Dirt.

“The friend and neighbor, who had unknowingly and inadvertently caused me a frustrating problem, needlessly apologized for the issue. My response was not the modern-day ‘No problem’; out popped the far more clever and aged ‘Twenty lashes with a wet noodle.’

“Pretty rad, huh?”

The vision thing

RUSTY of St. Paul: “As my eyes continue to age, I have found it is easier to read with my glasses off and my face close to what I am reading.

“I was reading a column today in a neighborhood newspaper about upcoming changes to Hidden Falls Park in St. Paul. New changes include replacing the picnic shelter, new pavement for the parking lots, a cultural ceremony area — and then I read that a ‘A mature play area is also under consideration.’

“While I’m not a prude (I don’t think), I’m not from California, so I wasn’t so sure about this type of play spot working in buttoned-down St. Paul. I read it again: ‘Mature play area.’ Then moved my face closer to the page. ‘Oh,’ said Rusty. ‘A nature play area.’ For kids.

“Later in the article, a woman who works for the city was quoted: ‘We’ve heard a demand for a nature play area.’ I wish my brain had been still processing it as ‘mature play area,’ as then I would know that St. Paul has become more open-minded than I give it credit for.”

Not exactly what (if anything?) ‘they’ had in mind

TWITTY of Como writes: “Subject: The world around us (or something).

“I’m not sure who had the idea first, but a year ago ‘they’ started dumping dredged-up material (soil) into Pigs Eye Lake, the stated purpose being — as reported in the Pioneer Press — to create island habitat for migrating waterfowl. And ‘they’ worked at it all summer, finally removing the last backhoe from one of the low-lying manmade islands late last fall.

“I have reason to drive Highway 61 frequently, and the constant question that ran through my mind as I watched ‘their’ progress in working to create these islands was: ‘Do they know the water level of the river fluctuates dramatically?’ Because Pigs Eye Lake is just a backwater of the river, and the islands ‘they’ created were barely above even the lowest water level last fall.

“Sure enough, when spring melt came — and at a time when migrating waterfowl might actually have made good use of them — the islands were all underwater. As they have been all summer, what with the constant rain we’ve been having. Sigh.

“I can’t but wonder how much of our taxpayers’ money it cost to build those islands. and, while I could be wrong, could it be that this project was poorly thought out? Maybe ‘they’ll’ add more dirt. I don’t expect a reward, but for the good of mankind (and waterfowl), I’ll keep an eye peeled.”

The simple displeasures

BIRDWATCHER IN LA CRESCENT: “A trip to the grocery store brought about a summer displeasure. I found a good parking spot in the huge lot, opened the car door, stepped out onto the hot blacktop right on a very soft piece of gum! It is that time of year when we have to watch where we walk in the parking lots, thanks to rude people.”

Today’s helpful hint . . . Or: The Permanent Family Record@@

KATHY S. of St. Paul: “Subject: Spreading Our Roots.

“A public-service message to any BB reader given up for adoption (plus the birth parents) in Minnesota:

“1. Effective July 1, 2024, any Minnesota adoptee aged 18 or older will be able to request their original pre-adoption birth records. Note the word ‘any,’ since some records were closed by court orders.

“2. Birth parents may file a Birth Parent Contact Preference form with the State of Minnesota, to say if they want to be contacted by adoptee(s). This form does not keep adoptees from accessing their birth records; it lets adoptees know if their birth parents want to be contacted.

“Tracing the families of adoptees used to be difficult, if not impossible. Adoptees weren’t often told of their birth families, and many records were (or still are) sealed. For at least 10 years, I knew that one of my dad’s second cousins was rumored to have given up children for adoption — back when I couldn’t figure out how to find them.

“In fact, Dad’s second cousin in Iowa gave up two boys for adoption, Curt in 1946 and Tim in 1949. Per my DNA test, I figure that Curt is her son, and Tim is a more distant family member. I located Tim without DNA, by posting a mini family tree on Ancestry. A ‘leaf’ popped up on the birth mother, and I contacted the genealogist who had posted information on her. She gave me Tim’s name, address, and phone number.

“Eight days after I called Tim in Iowa, he and his wonderful wife, Pat, came to St. Paul to meet me and learn about our family. On a gorgeous day in October, I drove them to the historic cemetery of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Mendota. Looking down from the cemetery, I could see a wealth of history in the rivers and places where local peoples and my ancestors lived.

“In the 1970s, I befriended Sadie, the last Travers member of my great-grandfather’s generation line, at my great-aunt’s funeral. I took her out to eat, and to St Peter’s Cemetery to visit her family’s graves. I also photographed her next to the small monument at the gravesite of my great-great-grandmother Mary — Sadie’s aunt. When Tim and Pat visited, I gave Tim a copy of that picture, and watched his wife photograph him in the same place.

“Some time later, Curt’s wife contacted me about our mutual DNA, and I helped bring Curt and Tim together. They seem to have much in common, and to enjoy having ‘roots.’ I hope to see Tim again someday, and to meet Curt — but I’m not counting on it.

“Meanwhile, I have boasting rights among genealogists for finding Tim without using DNA. Sometimes that is enough.”

The Literallyists

From BOB WOOLLEY: “At the completion of a workout video, the relentlessly cheery instructor said: ‘You guys literally killed it today!’

“I think I need to know what, exactly, I killed before I decide whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.”

Fellow travelers

THE AQUA AFICIONADO (real name S—): “Subject: It’s a small world, after all.

“When I visited the Peloponnese area of Greece, I based myself in Nafplio and took day trips from there. One morning, I decided to take the local bus to see the archaeological site in Mycenae. At the last minute, I changed my mind and hurried over to take the bus that went to the Epidaurus ruins instead.

“After I climbed into the bus, I heard a passenger exclaim: ‘It’s American S—!’

“It turned out that British friends Dick and Nada were visiting Greece, too. I happened to take the same bus that morning that they did. We spent a fun day together touring the ruins. Nada even had a postcard they had written to mail to me.

“We still exchange travel postcards, too, more than 20 years later.”

BAND NAME OF THE DAY: Slobber and the Wet Noodles

Your stories are welcome. The address is BB.onward@gmail.com.

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TAFFY BRODESSER-AKNER: Presents her novel “Long Island Compromise” in conversation with Julie Schumacher. 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 16, Shir Tikvah, 1360 W. Minnehaha Pkwy., Mpls., presented by Magers & Quinn. Ticketed event. Go to magersandquinn.com/events.

GEORGIA CLOEPFIL: Writer and former professional soccer player based in Oregon introduces “The Striker and the Clock,” her personal story of playing for six years, on six teams, in six countries, and the pain and joy of serious athletics. In conversation with Minnesotan Brad Zellar. 6 p.m. Thursday, July 18, Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.

DILL/WYNN: Jenna Dill (“Sheltered”) and Steve Wynn (“The Last Treasures of WWII”) sign copies of their books. 10-11:30 a.m. Friday, July 19, Lake Country Booksellers, 2766 Washington Square, White Bear Lake.

RAMSEY HILL WALKING TOURS: Roger Barr, author of “A Murder on the Hill: The Secret Life and Mysterious Death of Ruth Munson,” says there has been so much interest in his nonfiction book that he is leading two identical walking tours of the Ramsey Hill neighborhood where the body of a young working woman was found in a burned old hotel in 1937. The case was never solved. Free. 1 p.m. Friday, July 19; 4:30 p.m. Saturday, July 20. The free 90-minute tours begin and end at the James. J. Hill House, 240 Summit Ave., and will cover about 1.5 miles during which participants will see how the the neighborhood looked in 1937 and how it changed in the following years. They will be able to stand in exact locations connected to the crime.

Marcie Rendon (Courtesy of Soho Press)

MARCIE RENDON: A member of the White Earth Nation, poet and fiction writer, Rendon celebrates publication of “Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium,” in which she uses dream-songs and poem-songs as well as works of theater, choral music and opera to summon the ancestor’s songs and begin the dream singing for future generations. “The ancestors who walk with us sing us our song. When we get quiet enough, we can hear them sing and make them audible to people today,” she writes. A major influence on Rendon’s writing was Ojibwe author and scholar Gerald Vizenor’s “Summer in the Spring: Anishinaabe Lyric Poems and Stories,” which encouraged her to continue writing short verse in the style of her ancestors. In conversation with Lyz Jakoola, with music from Anishinaabe traditional singer Mark Erickson. 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 16, Birchbark Books downtown location, Birchbark Bizhiw, 1629 Hennepin Ave., Mpls. Free, registration required at birchbarkbooks.com/pages/events.

SANTIAGO JOSE SANCHEZ: Grinnell College assistant professor of English, a queer Colombian-American, introduces his novel “Hombrecito,” a queer coming-of-age story about a young immigrant’s complex relationships with his mother and his motherland. In conversation with Minnesota author Patrick Nathan. 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 16, Moon Palace Books, 3032 Minnehaha Ave., Mpls. (Masks required in the store.)

MELANIE SUMROW: Introduces her young adult debut novel “Girls Like Her,” about a 15-year-old girl set to stand trial for murder. In conversation with fellow author Brandy Colbert. Sumrow, who lives in Dallas, received an MFA in writing from Hamline University in St. Paul. 6  p.m. Wednesday, July 17, Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul.

ASHA THANKI: Graduate of University of Minnesota with an MFA in creative writing discusses her debut novel “A Thousand Times Before,” about three generations of women connected by a tapestry, moving from Partition-era India to modern-day Brooklyn.7 p.m. Thursday, July 18, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

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