Hi Darrel, Tom & All,
Tom's comment here is correct regarding the situation in the northern
half of Oregon, where Darrel's 1983 sighting took place (Grant County).
The "Blue Grouse" in the Ochocos and east of there in the Blue Mtns
region are all Dusky Grouse.
But south of Deschutes County, the situation is different: Sooty Grouse
is the expected species in Klamath County and Lake County, as far east
as the Warner Mountains.
The map found at the link that Tom posted makes the situation more
clear:
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/hunting/upland_bird/species/images/
A larger-scale map covering the full range of both Sooty Grouse and
Dusky Grouse in western North America (based on a paper by Michael
Schroeder) can be found one the Washington DFW website at:
http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/research/projects/grouse/dusky_sooty/
There have been a few recent reports of "Blue" Grouse from the Santa
Rosa Range in northern Nevada, just east of McDermitt (so just a bit
south of Harney County). This putative population doesn't show up on the
WDFW map, but is thought to be most likely Dusky Grouse. The sightings
have mainly been 20 to 30 miles south of the Oregon line, and the Santa
Rosas are less timbered as you go north, so it's unlikely that any of
these birds would wander into Oregon.
Joel
From: "Tom Crabtree" <tc@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [obol] Re: which Blue Grouse
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2016 09:00:07 -0800
You are correct. Everything not on the east slope of the Cascades is
Dusky Grouse. There is a corridor between the two populations so
there is no overlap. In the following map it is Dusky on the Right
and Sooty on the Left.
Tom Crabtree, Bend
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/hunting/upland_bird/species/images/blue-grouse-3.jpg
From: obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of 5hats@xxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2016 7:24 AM
Subject: [obol] which Blue Grouse
Last week Laura and I took a trip through eastern Oregon. As we
passed a point on Hwy 395 a little south of Galena Junction, in Grant
County, I remembered that I had seen (what was then) a Blue Grouse
strutting in the middle of the highway there on May 19, 1983. Until
now I hadn't thought much about the split of Blue Grouse into Dusky
Grouse and Sooty Grouse, or paid much attention to their respective
ranges, but is it correct to assume one found at that location was a
Dusky Grouse?
Darrel...
