[obol] Re: Winter Rim grouse
- From: Wayne Hoffman <whoffman@xxxxxxxx>
- To: Lars Norgren <larspernorgren@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 13:14:52 -0700
Hi -
Two thoughts:
First, my recollection of the ranges of Sooty and Dusky grouse put the
Winter Rim / Gearhart Mtn area in Sooty Grouse territory. This fits with
other species - these pine forests have more of a connection to the
Cascades than to the Blue Mountains. In fact, pine forests are still
pretty continuous (except for clearcuts) from the Cascades around Mt.
Thielsen all the way to Yamsey Mt., Winter Rim,and Gearhart Mt.
Second, the area between the Blues/Ochocos and Winter Rim probably was not
continuous forest, 10,000 BP because it was interrupted by a series of very
large lakes. Summer Lake and Abert Lake were probably connected into one
huge lake. Silver Lake would have extended from just below the west side
of Winter Rim west well past the current village of Silver Lake. The area
around Fort Rock is a lake bed that extends east well past Christmas Lake.
Dry River Canyon through Horse Ridge southeast of Bend was the outlet of a
lake that occupied the whole basin east of there, including Millican,
Brothers, and Hampton. The view from the top of Newberry Volcano would
have been lake after lake to the northeast, east, and southeast. By 10,000
BP these lakes were probably in decline, but I think they went directly
from Lakes to semidesert conditions without a forested interlude. Joel
Geier probably knows a lot more details.
Wayne
On Wed, Jul 23, 2014 at 10:34 AM, Lars Per Norgren <larspernorgren@xxxxxxxxx
> wrote:
> The Oregon Breeding Bird Atlas indicates Blue Grouse in both the
> Winter Rim and Warner Mtns (yet further east) of Lake County. I would be
> surprised by the species' absence in either place. Birds of Oregon lists
> three subspecies before the split, two belonging to what now is Sooty
> Grouse. I imagine the subspecies in Lake County would be sierrae. This
> location would be worthy of scrutiny. I have always thought of this as a
> bird of the vast conifer forests, but someone posted a link here to a
> Washington State fish and game article. In that state Dusky Grouse is an
> habitué of shrub-steppe adjacent to conifers. The distance between the
> Blue/Ochocco system and Winter Rim isn't that great and ten thousand years
> ago the forest between the two was probably continuous.
> Lars
>
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