Subject: Re: Okanogan trip
Date: Jul 7 09:02:46 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


Also present was a GROUSE nest with
>incubating female. I did not succesfully ID the grouse as the field
>guides I used were not deterministic. Here is my description: Any takers ?
>About 12 in. from beak to tail tip, Grayish-brown mottled on back
>and breast with yellowish mixed in around the breast and rump,
>cream terminal tail band on a darkish tail (also other bits
>of white on the tail and/or upper tail coverts). Some white
>under the chin and a blackish diffuse band about
>1 or 2 cm below the chin. Sitting on a nest on the ground
>at the base of a conifer in the burn about 1 or 2 meters from
>the burn edge (edge with live coniferous forest) at about
>5 and a half thousand feet.

Blue Grouse is the only one in NW with a broad pale (I'd call it gray) tail
tip. Varies geographically.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416