Well, thanks to Tom's grousing, I spent several hours looking for my Dusky
Grouse
photos. Eventually I realized they were taken (north of Farewell Bend
State Park)
in June of 2014 as I detoured off I84 to bird a small section of Hwy 30 on
my way
home from Albuquerque. There weren't many birds and as Tom surmised,
there were fewer trees (none actually). The grouse walked across the road
and into the
sparse vegetation at the arrow. (See attached image). Got some great
photos, but sadly they
were lost when my laptop of the day tragically crashed to the ground as I
drove away from the Costco parking lot in Clackamas after having put it on
the roof to load Costco 'Stuff'. 15 miles later I realized what had
happened
and went back to Costco but to no avail. I thought I had transferred them
to
my home computer, but I had only transferred my cell phone photos from the
trip. Bummer. I shudder to think of all the things I have lost by
'temporarily'
putting them on my car roof starting at age 16..
But, it surely was a Dusky Grouse and not a female pheasant.
Bob OBrien
PS While on the subject of Costco, however.......
Most birders are aware that there is a growing awareness that Red Crossbills
are not a single but potentially a multitude of species with individual
ranges
and only identifiable by call. So far one 'race' has been proposed as a new
species, from a mountain in Southern Idaho, but barely was not (yet)
so accepted by the AOU.
Well, always an ornithological leader, I have my own proposal. The various
'races' of Brewer's Blackbirds which hang out at widely spaced Costcos may
themselves be evolving into separate species. My own field of research is
the
Clackamas Costco race. I'm tentatively calling it the CC race. Please
email
me privately if you'd like to join in this study by an indepth analysis of
your
own local (so-far sub)species.
On Sun, Jun 26, 2016 at 10:51 PM, Robert O'Brien <baro@xxxxxxx> wrote:
I love to belabor points! And that is the whole point. There were indeed
no trees. I was amazed but after some book research i decided this was not
too unusual. In this case i should be able to dig up the photos. Bob
On Sunday, June 26, 2016, Tom Crabtree <tc@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
correct for your Dusky Grouse. Farewell Bend State Park is in Huntington,
Bob,
Not to belabor the point, but I am wondering if you have the location
OR, which is in Baker County, not Wallowa County. Looking at the pictures
of it online (I’ve never been there) it looks like it would be good habitat
for Ring-necked Pheasant, not Dusky Grouse. There are no coniferous trees,
in fact, barely any trees at all.
https://www.google.com/search?q=farewell+bend+state+park&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ0MaUtcfNAhUPwmMKHdG1BFQQ7AkIQQ&biw=1224&bih=783
Some place in Wallowa County makes a lot more sense.
Tom
Attachment:
DuskyGrouse.jpg
Description: JPEG image
