Grouse Attacks!

So yesterday I was cruising along the "Tracks" trail - an old dirt rails-to-trails path that runs through the forest - and got attacked by a ruffed grouse for the second time! This time it flew down from a tree in front of me, ran ahead of me for about 50m until I caught up to it, then circled around and started chasing me! This continued for about 30m, at which point I stopped and turned to face the bird. It stopped within a couple feet of me- I could almost touch it with my foot- so I shooed it off the trail and continued running. Seconds later, the thing flies at my back, lands right behind my feet, and resumes chasing me! Crazy bugger.

About 6 weeks ago I was running with Kyle Dawson in the same spot and it chased both of us. That time, I thought it was another runner catching up to us... we were running a pretty good pace so I turned to see who it was and well, it was little Mr. Angry Grouse.

Apparently this is pretty common, or I would make a video:
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=WfivrfPA2qY&feature=related

Maybe this is karma, given that I went grouse hunting last weekend. I was unsuccessful-- they were all hidden in really thick cover. Georganne has also been attacked by this same bird and said she saw a hunter on that trail yesterday. Apparently they only come out in the open when we are running.