>Tweeters,
>
>I am looking for information on the status of Spruce Grouse on the Olympic
>Peninsula (or West of the Cascades in general). I am aware of a record (listed
>by T. Wahl) of a single bird up the Hoh River although I do not know the origin
>of that record. I have just heard that the State Department of Fish and Game
>received some Spruce Grouse wings (apparently shot in the headwaters of the
>Wynoochee River) during one of their hunter surveys. Does anyone have any
>light they can shed on this topic for me? Thanks in advance.
>
>Roger_Hoffman at nps.gov
>
>Roger Hoffman
>Olympic National Park
>600 E. Park Ave
>Port Angeles, WA 98362
>(360) 452-4501 x247


Dear Roger,

I found your request extremely interesting. Question #1: In referring to
Terry Wahl's mention of a spruce grouse up the Hoh River, are you referring
to the mention in _A Guide to Bird Finding in Washington_ (1991) by Wahl
and Paulson?

This is to date the only "concrete" suggestion I have found that my own
observations may be validated. On two occasions I have observed what I
believed to be spruce grouse on the Olympic Peninsula. The first was in May
1992, on Three O'Clock Ridge, on the NE corner of the Peninsula, in the
national forest. The bird was a female, observed closely by me and two
other members of the Washington Ornithological Society. At the time, one of
my companions didn't seem to feel the sighting was unusual because he
stated that he had once seen a male at Hurricane Ridge some time
previously. It was only later that the unusual aspect of the sighting was
made clear to me. Accordingly, I submitted a report to Fred Sharpe, who
worked for the Park at that time. Last year, in April , I spotted a male
bird in a stand of trees above the Solleks River, in the Clearwater
drainage on the west side of Jefferson County. Unfortunately, my companion
at the time was not a "good" birder, and could not see the bird well enough
(after it had flown to a perch in a dense screen of young conifers and
peered at us from the shadows) to vouch for the identification.

Subsequent to that sighting (and another _possible_ one -- glimpsed only in
flight -- later the same day, same watershed), I spoke to Dave Ware at the
Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). I asked if he knew of reports
of spruce grouse from the Olympic Peninsula, and he replied that he knew of
nothing definite, but was intrigued by my observation. He did not rule out
the possiblility, and questioned me as to habitat. I turned in a report,
for whatever it might be worth. Later, I asked a person I perceived as a
"good birder," who had worked in the Hoh-Clearwater area for the Dept. of
Natural Resources (DNR). She said she had. As with the previous companion
at my first sighting, she acted almost as if it were no big deal.

Last year (and currently this year) I worked as a biologist with WDFW on
the marbled murrelet project, a research and survey project funded by the
DNR as part of their Habitat Conservation Plan on the outer Peninsula. In
the course of that work (and previously) I have seen numerous blue grouse,
and am aware of the differences between the two species. I have been a
birdwatcher (as distinguished, perhaps, from a birder) for over 30 years. I
try to be conservative in my identifications of potentially rare or unusual
birds. But I have been frustrated in my search for other corroborating
evidence that I have not been "seeing things" in regard to spruce grouse on
the Olympic Peninsula. (I have as yet seen them nowhere else.)

I would be glad to mail you hard copies of the records I have made of my
sightings, if they will be of any use to you. I realize my accounts are
anecdotal in nature. I am intrigued by your mention of the wings collected
from the Wynoochee watershed by WDFW, and alarmed (a bit) by the one
response you received on Tweeters which urged caution in belief of WDFW
records. Although I am a "Nongame" (as opposed to "Game") biologist, I am
impressed with Dave Ware and would not question _his_ expertise as it
pertains to upland game birds. Unless there is notably little hunting
pressure (or reporting of same by hunters) on the outer Peninsula, I am
surprised at the lack of data and wings from that region, and would have
expected more data if spruce grouse have indeed been present.

As the crew leader for the murrelet team covering the Hoh-Clearwater study
area this year, I plan to continue my usual policy of keeping my eyes and
mind open to anything during the coming field season ...

Let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Sincerely,

Janet Hardin
Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife
Wildlife Diversity Division
home (Port Townsend): < wings at olympus.net >
work/message phone: (360) 902-2367


P. S. I encourage you to keep in contact with the members of Tweeters. Too
often there seems to be a gap betweem the "professional" biologists /
researchers and the "birders." Both have a lot to offer each other if only
we communicate.