Pennsylvania Game News - May 2016 - 62

inch shoots - just right for eating - and I
collected a bundle. If you like asparagus
you'd enjoy these very similar wildlings.
Use those of the common milkweed - the
one that bears the fat pods stuffed with
silk - and you'll not mistake them for
slender dogbane, or Indian hemp. Milkweed shoots are thick-stemmed and unbranching, with large oblong leaves that
hug the stem in pairs. Discard all but the
small terminal leaves and cook the shoots
like asparagus.
May 15: I checked on the grouse nest
today, and it's good I did. One egg was
pipped and two had their caps nearly cut
free by the chicks inside.
Returned at 6:15 this evening with a
friend, and we photographed the hen on
the nest. When she vacated the nest, we
moved in quickly to find most of the eggs
had already hatched. Several chicks were
completely dry, and two or three were still
struggling to get out of the eggshells. We
quickly snapped what should be some
dandy pictures and left, planning to get
additional pictures tomorrow morning
before they leave the nest.
May 16: We arrived at the grouse nest
before daybreak and watched from a
distance until six o'clock. When the hen
left the nest at our approach four of the
chicks scampered out and hid beneath

the leaves, but we gently replaced them
and went to work taking close-ups of
the fuzzy brood. All but one grouse egg
and the ringneck egg had hatched. The
chicks were all dry now, of course, and
incredibly cute. Unfortunately, they soon
adopted us as their new mother, and at
each movement would pour out of the
nest and crowd beneath our squatting
forms. The only way to keep them in the
nest was for one of us to "brood" them
beneath his outstretched hand while the
other focused his camera. One quick
exposure was all we could manage each
time they were uncovered, but we should
have gotten some good ones.
We left for an hour so the hen could
return and brood them, then went back
for the last time. What a change! She
must have given them a crash course in
survival, for when she fluttered from the
nest, all but one of the chicks scattered
and hid. The remaining one poked his
head beneath a leaf that had fallen into
the nest. I picked him up and, finding no
hiding place, he flattened himself out in
the palm of my hand and shut his eyes.
We put him back in the nest and left them
in the care of their mother, who seemed to
be making good progress with their education. Before the day is over, she'll lead
them from their nursery, never to return,
but we'll have a photographic record of
the highlights of their first fourteen hours
in the world.
May 18: Judging from the rattlesnakes
I see, there must be a denning area in the
game lands where I do a lot of nature
snooping, but as yet I haven't found it.
While hunting for it again this afternoon
I heard a strange sniffing sound, then
some leafy rustling, beneath the big flat
rock on which I was standing. The sound
moved toward the edge of the rock, and
as I watched expectantly, a weasel poked

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - May 2016