I mostly like grouse. I get a little bit annoyed with them when they fly up into my face to chase me away from their young. If they weren’t so well camouflaged, maybe I would see them and wouldn’t get startled so much. Anyway, enjoy these photos …
I took these photos up at Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park recently. It was a gray day with heavy cloud cover. There is a nice paved road all the way up and the views are spectacular (even in cloudy weather; see recent posts … including the ones coming up). It’s over 5000′ … so one of the few places you can drive to the high country in the Olympics (the other being Deer Park). That elevation is in the subalpine zone in the Olympics … and there aren’t as many bird types up there as in lower areas. A couple of the regulars are shown here: Gray Jays (AKA Canada Jays or “Camp Robbers”) and Blue Grouse (AKA Sooty Grouse). (Missing were ravens and hawks)
Hiking along the North Fork Skokomish trail in Olympic National Park, you never know that you might see. There are the occasional sightings of elk and bear (black bear, which typically run away) and lots of smaller birds. Sometimes you see grouse… often hearing them before being able to spot them in their camouflage. This one stayed around long enough for a photo op. These have always been blue grouse to me … but they are now called Sooty Grouse in some of my books. (or both)
When I visited Haines, Alaska a couple times, I stayed in a small cabin close to the ferry terminal. As I was out for an after-dinner walk, I got this image of an old truck with one of the Alaska ferries in the distance. This is one of the smaller ferries that usually runs between towns, not the larger vessels that make the run from Bellingham, Washington.
The cabin had a number of grouse living in the yard. They were quite tame and I think were looking for handouts. I gave them a copy of my itinerary, but they didn’t seem interested in that type of handout.
