CHARACTERISTICS OF PRODUCTIVE GROUSE COVER 111 



fulness to the bird. What, then, are the characteristics of productive grouse cover? 



In General 



Food and shelter are the two prime requisites of life. The largely wooded habitat in 

 which grouse live, must provide these conveniently and in abundance throughout the entire 

 life cycle from egg to adult if the birds are to prosper. 



Each type of grouse cover normally produces some of both, but in widely varying amounts. 

 Few, if any, cover types contain within their borders amounts adequate to supply grouse needs 

 for a month or a week or. with some types, even for a day. Furthermore these needs vary 

 with the kind of day, the season and the particular activities that are being carried on. 



For instance, in the winter, cover furnishing favorable shelter is a prerequisite, for the 

 danger from predators and unfavorable weather is then at its height. Food, on the other 

 hand, is not a critical item for much wooded cover is sufficiently varied as regards composition 

 so as to provide the necessary buds and fruits. In sjjring the prime need is for types pro- 

 viding adequate breeding and nesting cover. In summer, feeding grounds for the broods are 

 important. Fall brings on the harvest moon for man and bird, with covers that support fat- 

 tening foods receiving the lion's share of attention. 



These seem to be the outstanding seasonal requirements, though of course there are others 

 of lesser importance. To meet these, good grouse cover must possess certain characteristics. 



Covert Size and Shape 



The smallest unit of fairly isolated habitat in which grouse liave nested, raised broods and 

 maintained themselves the year around, to be surveyed by the Investigation, was about 10 

 acres in extent. Though completely surrounded by large open fields, birds occasionally trav- 

 eled between it and other woodlands in the vicinity, thus making it impossible to state with 

 certainty that, as a unit, it could have been self-maintaining. The same may be said of two 

 other coverts, similarly situated, containing slightly less than 25 acres each. 



Providing the |)roper cover tyjjcs are present and productively interspersed, there seems 

 to be no upper limit to the size of a good grouse covert. 



The shape of a covert, though often of interest to the hunter, seems not to be too important 

 to the grouse. Long, narrow strips seldom provide for the proj)er interspersion of cover types. 

 Rectangular-shajjed coverts provide more "outside edges", in which food is often abundant, 

 than do areas that are more nearly square in outline. This is especially true where the coverts 

 are disconnected and a])t to In' small as in many farming communities. 



Type Size and Shcpe 



The reverse of the situation just described is often true as regards the size of the various 

 types that make up a covert. Mininnim dimensions are usually unimportant. A few clumps 

 of a dozen conifers each may provide adequate winter shelter for several grouse. The cut- 

 ting of a few "wolf" trees, with wide-spreading, dominant crowns, in a woodlot may let in 

 light sufficient to encourage small patches of briers furnishing summer food for a brood. The 

 important thing is that the type be large enough to create an "edge" and to allow for the 

 development of the vegetation characteristic of that type within its borders. 



But maximum size is another story. The amount of "edge" is inversely proportional to 

 type size. Furthermore large blocks of a single type seldom encourage maximum popula- 



