The hunters were out until just after noon so we could have a walk in the forest while there was daylight. Thankfully we have no wind now because it fell down to -15C (5F) last night, much less cold during the day though but the temperature will drop just as low tonight again.
We went out to the bog and even though we didn’t see any animals we could hear what I think was a complaining wild hog while it ran away from us. No small birds or any birds to be honest. I guess the bigger ones stay close to the roads to eat what has been killed by traffic during the night and the smaller ones seems to be at my feeders 🙂
The Wood Grouse might not be a Wood Grouse after all. People knowing birds better than I do says the coloring is wrong. It has the size of one though so until they can tell me what it actually is I’ll still call it a Wood Grouse. It can be a crossing with the Black Grouse though, they do look different in their colors. It is still around every day though and I’ve noticed that it hasn’t any tail feathers, a close call with a lynx perhaps?
We also had a visit from our local fox last night, I had the camera up for three days and as long as it snowed it stayed away, cold weather doesn’t seem to disturb it though.
Have a great day!
The Cottage by the crane lake. 
No tail feathers is awkward, I imagine. As a kid I rehabbed a pigeon who had lost its tail feathers to some predator. It was having trouble getting airborne which was why I was able to catch it. It was fine in a couple of weeks.
There’s a Facebook group called “What is this bird?”. It’s international and has actual bird experts on it. If you post a photo and give your general location, someone will know if the grouse is a cross or something else entirely.
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Hi Caryn!
This one does fly but seems to prefer to run and I guess that’s because of the missing tail feathers.
She has the wrong colors for being a pheasant as well and she’s too big. I’ll see if I can find that group, thanks for the tip!
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