Subject: Re: close focus; was: In search of raptors
Date: Sep 29 16:52:46 1997
From: "Clarice Clark and Jerry Broadus" - jbroadus at seanet.com



Tweets:

Nancy Taylor wrote a nice longish post about hawking about around the
Okanogan and other such places. She mentioned:

(snip)
(Note to Scott
> Downes: we looked for your lifer Spruce Grouse on the Freezeout Ridge
> trail, no luck. Guess we will have to "put in our time" on this one, as
> you have.)

(more snipping)

Weekend before last Clarice and I were at Tiffany Springs
campground for two nights, and on one of our "just at sunset" hikes
to Tiffany Lake we stopped trailside to look at a couple of
three-toed woodpeckers when we heard the unmistakeable sound of a grouse
flying up in to one of the spruce trees. Close, and it didn't fly
very far. So, since spruce grouse generally sit still, we stalked
stealthily in to the little patch of trees right in front of us, each
of us going on the opposite side of the clump of trees. Nothing. So
I strolled right in to the thicket (spruce needles and all) and had
this wonderful encounter when I looked around the trunk of a tree
exactly when a beautiful male spruce grouse looked around from the
other side, right in my face-- beak to beak. I have heard birders
who don't count a bird unless they get it focused in their
binoculars. Can I count it if I have to put on my reading glasses to
get a good look? We studied each other for a while, as he raised his
"eyebrows" and turned his head to one side to get a better look at
me-- which is exactly what I do when I want to see something better
close up. I backed away, but he didn't, and I was able to call
Clarice in so she could come have a similar close encounter. Wasn't
until we walked away that he decided to split, and then he lumbered
off for a good long ways.
Jerry Broadus
P.O. Box 249
Puyallup, WA. 98371