I had a similar experience with a ruffed grouse.
Several years ago there was a party at a friends East
of Everett. They had a trail through some woods on
their property. The grouse hung around us in the
yard. When several of us walked on the trail, the
grouse followed a few feet behind. If we stopped, it
stopped and waited; when we started moving again, it
continued following along behind. It acted like a
family pet, but the homeowners said they hadn't seen
it before.

Jim Lady
Seattle, WA

Irene Potter <isparrow at seanet.com> wrote:Tweets:

The "tame" behavior that Mike Patterson describes in
his car chaser reminds me of a similar experience I
had
a number of years ago with a Ruffed Grouse on a Tiger
Mtn. trail. Tiger Mtn. is immediately east of
Issaquah, WA.
Seven of us hikers were on the easy South Tiger
seven-mile
loop trail when we encountered a Ruffed Grouse in the
middle
of the trail. We stood and watched the bird for at
least five
minutes while it wandered along the trail between us
while
pecking at our boot strings and eyelets. Any of us
could
have picked it up if we had wanted. After we walked
on, I turned back at one point to see that it was
still moving
along the middle of the trail. Through the years when
I have
pondered about this type of behavior and wondered how
the
grouse, as a species, have survived with such easy to
approach
behavior. They certainly don't have much in the way of
equipment
with which to defend themselves.
Irene Potter, Tacoma, WA
isparrow at seanet.com