That's my interpretation of a grouse's mating call, the so-called drumming sound the male makes by beating the air with his wings. It sounds something like a small engine starting up somewhere in the distance. But that sound isn't heard as much as it was a few years ago. The grouse are decreasing in numbers across southern New England. Turkeys and grouse.
Spring is their time for mating, laying and incubating eggs, raising young.
The whole process begins with the males' calls, the gobbling and drumming, but while one is becoming easier to hear each spring, the other is fading away. As I write this, I haven't heard any drumming at all this spring. And I heard it just once all last spring. Not that long ago, hearing the drumming was almost a daily occurrence through April for anybody who spent time in the woods. The grouse, or partridge, began decreasing shortly after the turkeys were brought back here, but there doesn't appear to be any direct correlation.