Saturday, when I cruised Ocean Shores, I stumbled across a grouse along the
side of the road. Reconstructing my route and looking at a map, I think I
either turned right from Fairwood onto Marine View, or from Greenview onto
Fairwood. The grouse was on the right as I pulled up to make the turn. It
popped up from a drainage ditch next to road, looked at me, then flew away.
The habitat in the area is not wooded, more brushy as I recall.

My first impression was another Ring-necked Pheasant since I had seen
several the previous day up near Hansville and Pt No Point. While those
birds were males, this one seemed to be a female.

However, when it flew, it had a fan shaped tail, not the pointed,
wedge-shaped tail of a pheasant. My next thought was Ruffed Grouse, but
then I noted that there was no dark terminal tail band. The entire tail
seemed uniformly medium brown--same as the body.

Unfortunately, I picked up no other notable field marks ... the head seemed
basically brown, with a small amount of white (I think).

The bird seemed "large" but I don't think it was as large as the male RN
Pheasants I saw the day before. I know that female RN Pheasants have
"shorter" tails than males, but this bird's tail was definitely full and
fan shaped--not pointed.

Any ideas? Would a Ruffed Grouse be a rarity at Ocean Shores on October
11th? Could I have missed the tail band?

Thx.

Phil




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Phil Davis

home: PDavis at ix.netcom.com Davidsonville, Maryland, USA
work: PDavis at OAO.com Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
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