Blue (Sooty) Grouse, Dendragapus Obscurus

Day 300: As a birder, I know that grouse frequently perch in trees, but it always amuses me to see one of these fat brown "chickens" take wing from the side of the road to land on a branch. I half-expect the ungainly thing to pitch off the other side in a cartoon-like demonstration of Newton's First Law, "an object in motion tends to remain in motion," yet it compensates for its mass. The claws dig into the rough bark, perhaps the wings flutter a little, and the bird comes to rest with barely a wobble. Blue (Sooty) Grouse are relatively common in Mount Rainier National Park. I've been surprised by them on many occasions when a piece of "trail" ten feet in front of me suddenly lifted off with an enormous clatter of wings. Their colouration camouflages them well against dirt and gravel or, for that matter, against the grey-brown bark of conifer boughs. There is some confusion regarding the proper scientific name of this species, and field guides may have it listed as "Blue Grouse," separated further into "Sooty" (Pacific) and "Dusky" (interior) forms. The difference is only noticeable in males of Dendragapus obscurus; females of both forms are visually similar.

Seriously?

Day 8: I don't think any of us were quite ready for the sudden transition from summer to winter, but after all, we should have expected it. Autumn in the Pacific Northwest lasts a matter of days, as does Spring. In the space of a week, leaves change colour and are stripped from the trees by wind and rain  to stand bare and shivering. If you're a resident of the higher elevations like Sooty here, you'd best know where to find shelter and food. During the winter when snow prevents access to any other food source, Sooty Grouse subsist on a diet comprised almost exclusively of evergreen needles. Yep, that's what I said, evergreen needles. The occasional bug out for a winter stroll may wind up as a protein snack for a grouse lucky enough to spot it. Sooty Grouse populations are on a slow decline, although you certainly wouldn't have thought so if you'd been hiking near Paradise this year. They are listed as a species of concern which, without careful conservation, may be upgraded to threatened or endangered.

Watch Your Step!

Day 339: It wasn't the first time I'd almost stepped on a grouse because I didn't see it, nor is it likely to be the last. Grice (as I like to call them, because the plural of "mouse" is "mice") blend in beautifully with the particular shade and grain of gravel popular with our trail crew. And they know it (the grice, that is). They stick to the shadows whenever possible, and if it wasn't for the fact that they will eventually move when you're almost on top of them, you might never know they were there. Once alerted to the first one, I realized I had two birds the size of nice laying hens in front of me...no, three...no, waitaminit, that piece of trail moved...four!...and for a few minutes, I thought I was going to be the one who had to step off into the meadow because they were holding their ground. Let me tell you, when one of these well-camouflaged birds lifts off unexpectedly a foot in front of you, you jump out of your hide. That's a lot of chicken to get airborne, and the sound of a Sooty Grouse beating its wings isn't too unlike the whup-whup-whup of a helicopter rotor (or at least it seems like it when you're in close proximity). As it happened, everybody but me skootched off trail about three feet to continue nibbling whatever it is grice nibble, hanging out in an open stand of subalpine fir until I'd gone by. Oh yeah, and one other thing: hikers in grouse country should be advised against wearing light-coloured footwear, and that includes exposed socks. Especially during breeding season, white socks or tennies may instigate a grouse attack.

Sooty Grouse, Dendragapus Obscurus

Day 300: As with many bird species which exhibit morphologic variations from one side of the country to the other, Dendragapus obscurus is technically a Blue Grouse in "Sooty" form. Its eastern and interior counterpart is the Dusky Grouse. The differences are most obvious in the males. Sooty's tailfeathers are tipped in grey whereas Dusky's tail is almost solid black. In mating display, the air sacs on the sides of Sooty's neck will be yellow; in Dusky, they are purplish-red. The females are quite similar, with Sooty being perhaps a little darker. Where the ranges of the two subspecies intersect, they intergrade.

Last week on a hike above Paradise, I heard a grouse drumming in the same area where I encountered this one a few days ago, but couldn't spot the bird. This female was impossible to miss. She was determined not to relinquish the trail even after Joe and I had gathered several visitors behind us while we photographed her. We'd move ahead a foot, and she'd do likewise, invariably stopping in a shady spot which made photography difficult. At one point, we expected her to head downhill through the meadow, but instead, she ran, skitter-skitter-skitter through a sunny patch on pavement, only veering off trail when she came to a small rocky wash. Even then, she remained a mere six feet from us as we passed her, and then returned to picking and eating wildflowers.

Oscar The Grouse

Day 243: Under the motivation of his biological imperative, Oscar the Grouse was doing a stupid thing: walking along the inside curve of a paved road, ignoring traffic. I was afraid we were going to be witness to the making of road pizza, but as soon as Joe and I stepped out of the truck with cameras in hand, the tourists coming up behind us started pulling over into the viewpoint to see what was going on. By that time, Oscar had increased his pace and was running along the verge in full turkey mode. At the end of a fifty-yard sprint, he dipped abruptly over the edge and flushed out two females. They made a dash to the yellow line, then flew up into the trees with the male following. I was glad to see them all in a safer spot when we drove away.

If English was a sensible language with the plural of "mouse" being "mice," then the plural of "grouse" should be "grice." Although I seldom see more than one (and that rarely), it is "grice" in my book (for those of you keeping track, you can put that in your notes beside "Porch Parrots" and my insistence on the spelling of "garbidge" because the world needs a few laughs). Oscar happens to be of the Blue/Sooty persuasion, and yes, I had to check that in the field guide. The distinction is in the colouration of those yellow air sacs he's so proudly displaying; our PNW birds tend to be the subspecies, but where the ranges overlap with Dusky (the "Blue" of the interior), they intergrade and the line becomes very blurry. That said, there was no doubt that Oscar here was bent on furthering his genetics, although his singleness of purpose almost left him as a candidate for the Darwin Award.