[CT Birds] Ruffed Grouse Question

[ls.broker]

Ruffed Grouse in Connecticut - CBC Data:

With 13 of 18 Connecticut Christmas Bird Counts (including all  
northern counts) posting results for the 2007-08 CBC season thus far,  
here are the reports of Ruffed Grouse:

Barkhamsted		2
Litchfield Hills		5
Pawling, NY/CT		1
Old Lyme-Saybrook	1
Current Total:		9

Ruffed Grouse has gone through one of the most severe declines in  
numbers of all species recorded on Christmas Bird Counts.   
Connecticut has been able to put 300 or more birders out in the field  
on Christmas Bird Counts since the early 1960s.  During the 1960s,  
1970s, and early 1980s, it was common for birders to record 150 to  
200 Ruffed Grouse annually on Connecticut CBCs.  The all-time high  
CBC counts for the state were in 1980-81 (271 Ruffed Grouse), 1981-82  
(267 grouse), 1963-64 (252 grouse), 1979-80 (236 grouse), and 1982-83  
(220 grouse).  A significant statewide decline in Ruffed Grouse  
numbers began in the late 1980s.  Since 1989-90, there has been a  
steady decline in grouse numbers, from ca. 80-90 birds to 20-40 birds  
to fewer than 20 in the most recent years.  In the last seven years,  
for example, Ruffed Grouse numbers have ranged from a high of 16  
statewide in 2004-05 to a low of 4 in 2006-07.

While a series of factors likely have been involved in this  
precipitous decline (as mentioned by others), it is interesting to  
note that the explosion in Wild Turkey numbers in Connecticut began  
in the early 1980s.  Turkeys first appeared on Connecticut CBCs in  
1957-58, and they remained in single and low double digit numbers  
statewide (mostly on northern counts) for the next 25 years.   Annual  
CBC reports of Wild Turkeys ranged from 14 to 81 in the period  
1982-83 through 1986-87, from 103 to 666 in the period 1987-88  
through 1994-95, and from 839 to 2038 in the period 1995-96 through  
2006-07.  These incredible increases (which got underway seriously in  
the late 1980s) resulted from a highly successful reintroduction  
program, and they have close inverse correlation with the decline in  
Ruffed Grouse in Connecticut.  It also would be interesting to see if  
there are decent population estimates for the Eastern Coyote in  
Connecticut over the course of the last 60 years.

I agree that the Ruffed Grouse surveys conducted by the State DEP are  
most important in understanding the recent status of this bird in  
Connecticut.

Steve Broker
Cheshire