Spruce Grouse are in dry, high forests, (Subalpine Fir/Lodgepole
Pine/Engelman Spruce type). Recent breeding records are all east of the
Cascade crest, though they probably come across the crest where mountains
create rain shadow areas. South of Mt. Baker would likely be too wet, and
too far from the crest. My bet would be for Blue.

Kelly Cassidy -- Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Box 357980, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98195
kelly at u.washington.edu --- 206-685-4195 --- 206-368-8076

On Mon, 11 Aug 1997, Franny Drobny wrote:

> Hi Tweeters:
>
> Saturday I was hiking up around Blue Lake, about 10+ miles or so west of Baker
> Lake around the 4,000+' elevation (NW Washington, in the Cascade mountains,
> south of Mt. Baker). Heading east back down the gravel forest service road
> towards Baker Lake (Baker Lake was about 7 miles to the east), a female blue (?)
> grouse crossed the road and went up the hillside with her two chicks. A very
> beautiful sight to watch. It was very mottled/molting looking, so it was hard
> for me to tell if it was a blue grouse or maybe a spruce grouse? I watched it
> at close range with my binoculars for about 15 minutes. I settled on a blue
> grouse because of the pale terminal band, with broken barring, on the wedgey
> tail. The grouse's mottling was mostly brown/some black/whitish (very little
> reddish-brown coloring). I also didn't really see any grayish coloring. But
> since I am unfamiliar with habitat and the different grouse, I'm wondering if
> someone could tell me a little about this. Are blue grouse around there? Where
> are spruce grouse usually found? The only grouse I've seen in Western Washington
> is a lot of ruffed grouse, and it definitely wasn't that. If there are some
> habitat limitations, that would take care of my questions.
>
> Franny Drobny
> Seattle, Washington
> fdrobny at cairncross.com
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