[obol] The Big Blue Grouse Question
- From: Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx>
- To: Oregon Birders OnLine <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 03:42:36 -0700
Hi all,
Every year about this time, this question -- Sooty or Dusky? -- comes up
as birders head into the mountains and encounter more of these "fancy
forest chickens," as Khanh likes to call them.
Unfortunately the maps in most continental-scale field guides -- whether
printed or on-line -- do a very poor job of depicting the ranges in the
areas where this question comes up in Oregon and Washington.
The most useful "Blue" Grouse map that I've seen for our region is on
p.3 of this excellent article which Washington DFW biologist Michael
Schroeder wrote for Washington Birder:
http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/01312/wdfw01312.pdf
According to Dave Budeau (who's in charge of Oregon's upland gamebird
program for ODFW), this distribution matches up with hunter
check-station data (grouse wings & tails) from Oregon.
The situation in Washington is complicated, due to an overlap zone in
the northern Washington Cascades/Okanogan region which extends nearly as
far south as Mt. Rainier.
In Oregon, thankfully the situation is much simpler to describe:
If you're in the Oregon Cascades or farther west, the only possibility
is Sooty Grouse. Sooty Grouse also occur in south-central Oregon, as far
east as the Warner Mountains.
The Dusky Grouse range in Oregon extends farther west than most field
guides show, through the Strawberry Range and Aldrich Mountains and on
through the Ochoco Mountains, reaching Wheeler, Crook, and the
easternmost bit of Jefferson Co.
Jefferson Co. is the only Oregon county that includes at least part of
the range for both Sooty Grouse and Dusky Grouse. Good luck if you try
to find them both in one day!
Happy grousing,
Joel
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
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