Kathleen Hunt's description of a Robin "going 'eeer'" jogged my memory about
an incident of some 3 years ago.

I was photographing butterflies in the Griffin Creek drainage near
Carnation, WA. As I walked along a logging road bordered by dense second
growth, a loud, spine-chilling, cat-like scream suddenly came from the
underbrush only a few feet away. Hoping to see a bobcat or some other
carnivore or mustelid, I swallowed hard, picked up a big stick, and
carefully plunged into the dense woods. The screams were coming from the
ground, some 20 or 30 feet away, but I could see nothing at all.

Suddenly, a Ruffed Grouse burst into flight, then landed not far away. I
thought that surely I was interrupting some predator's potential meal.
Then, to my surprise, the screams resumed, coming directly from the grouse.
There was no mistake; it was the grouse, a female with chicks, which was
making this incredible sound.

I have heard this same sound from a grouse on one other occasion, in a pine
forest at the Camas Creek burn in Chelan County. Then too, it was a female
Ruffed Grouse with chicks.

Questions: Is this a common phenomenon? And what is the purpose of such a
call?

Dave Nunnallee
dnun461 at ecy.wa.gov
Bellevue, WA