The Chicks Are Out

The little chicks scattered back to the weeds.

The weather is hot and the chicks are out. I don’t mean the scantily clad ones flaunting their good looks at the beach. I mean the baby grouse have hatched. 

Almost daily someone posts pictures on social media of baby grouse, usually accompanied by their mother and crossing a street somewhere.

Fortunately, grouse chicks can feed on their own almost immediately after hatching and can wander with their mother up to quarter of a mile from where they were hatched. Less than a week after hatching they can fly, looking like giant bumble bees. They grow from less than an ounce, at hatching, to a little over a pound in about four months.

The biggest danger in the first days of their lives is cold rainy weather. A cold rainy stretch can wipe out whole broods and decimate a population.

This year northern New England has been cool but unusually dry. Come October we will see how the broods did.