Meet Gomer! This is Rocky's pet grouse. Normally a skittish wild bird of the forest, for over a year Rocky has been feeding Gomer bird seed. In fact, Gomer has so many fans that when the Rock has been in the hospital, he has been fed by Rocky's men friends. I've even thrown out a handful of seed now and then. It all started in March 2008 when one day Gomer wouldn't get out of the way and blocked the path of Rocky's truck. Rock finally got around the bird, came home and took back bird seed and has been handfeeding Gomer ever since. He evidently has imprinted on trucks, and sometimes cars, and actually will chase us down the road if he's hungry and we don't stop. He has ambushed at least two of us, me in my car and our friend, Jack, in his truck, by flying down at us from the trees. He flew across my windshield, barely missing it, and actually landed in the bed of Jack's truck. This is the time of year for Gomer to mate; that's why his feathers are puffed out around his neck (giving him his name of Ruffed Grouse) and his tail is nicely spread . He is ideally camouflauged as you can see from the above photo as he blends in with the leaf litter which mulches the forest floor. We haven't seen a female grouse around, so I hope he gets lucky soon. We haven't heard him drumming, either, which is what grouse do to attract a female by jumping up on a hollow log and flapping their wings so that the log vibrates and makes a drumming sound. Maybe Gomer needs to do a little more drumming.
