Ruffed Grouse...

Keeping with what I have been trying to post lately and not post all Elk photos I will end the week with the Ruffed Grouse. It has been difficult to come up with other photos lately with nothing working out as planned. Last weekend my family and I had reservations at the Shenandoah National forest, we were hoping to photograph the fall colors and some whitetail deer. With the weather that trip got scraped. I do not have another free weekend to try it again until the middle of December. I tried going for a drive around here over the weekend but it was just raining to hard to get out of the truck with the camera. On Monday I set out again in search of wildlife and fall colors, my destination Kings Gap State Park. Well no wildlife and nothing in me was creative. I did take a few photographs but nothing I could really say I liked. I really want to get some good fall color shots I just keep coming up empty.

I took these photos while in Benezette photographing the rut. One late morning Willard asked If I wanted to go for a ride and see a few things I had never seen before. We headed to Driftwood to see the Civil War monument, a stop along the way to see where Tom Mix was born and then up the Mason Hill Road for the view. On the way back down the road we came across this Ruffed Grouse standing on the dirt road. I had not seen a grouse in years and had never photographed one. It was a little dark so I had to bump up the ISO and hand hold the camera so they didn't turn out the way I would have hoped they would. All in all I am just glad I got to see one.

For those of you that do not know this is Pa.'s state bird. To learn more about this pretty bird click the Ruffed Grouse.