Greetings to All,

I have been reading Tweeters for several years now on the Web, but this is my
first posting.? I have an ID problem that has completely stumped me, and I
was hoping that someone here could help me out.? This message is a little
long ? sorry about that.?

Last weekend my wife and I crossed the Cascades to do a little birding and
sightseeing in Yakima County.? We spent most of Saturday in the Wenas/Umtanum
Road area and spent the night south of Yakima.? Early Sunday morning found us
slowly cruising south of Sunnyside on the Mabton-Bickleton Road (somewhere
near De Lorme page 37, C/D-8).? About 6:30am, I caught some movement in the
grass near the side of the road.? As we pulled over, we saw a small game bird
walking through the grass.? I was expecting a Gray Partridge or perhaps a
Chukar or a California Quail.? But what I saw didn?t seem to be any of
those.?We were in an area of mostly flat grassland, with some gentle rolling
hills and some scattered sage.? We observed the bird from inside the car at a
distance of about 20 feet for about 10 seconds, using 8x42 binoculars.? The
light was very good, but the belly and legs of the bird were obscured in the
grass.? My initial thought was that the bird was about the size of a Chukar,
perhaps a little bigger ? although I know sometimes trying to judge size
without a frame of reference can be deceptive.? It had a long, slender neck,
a short stubby bill, and a slight crest that sloped up from the forehead to
make a tiny peak near the back of the head.?The bird was a dusty, light
brown/tan over its head, the back of its neck, and its wings and back.? It
had dark (black?) and white speckling, the white dots about the diameter of a
pencil were especially noticeable; there was nothing that I would call
?barring? on these areas.? The tail was partly hidden in the grass, but it
seemed to be relatively small and compact.? It walked with a fairly erect and
up-right posture (not leaning forward like a quail).? It was apparently
alone, and did not make any sounds.? Soon it disappeared into the grass and
brush and we were unable to relocate it.

Looking through our Sibley and National Geographic guides, we didn?t see
anything that especially stood out.? It was not a quail or a partridge
(unless it was in some kind of juvenile plumage??? We couldn?t find any
mention of juvenile plumages for many of these birds).? It wasn?t a female
pheasant (unless again it was a juvenile??).? The bird that seemed closest by
far, was the Sharp-tailed Grouse.?Our bird was a little lighter colored than
the ones in the field guides,and it seemed smaller than 17 inches (?). ?I
also didn?t notice the ?yellowish eye combs? (NG guide).? But what really
made me skeptical is that this bird is relatively rare, and (if I?m correct
here) is not typically seen in southern Yakima County.? The field guides that
I have show their range to be north of this area.? And a little more research
on the Web found that according to the Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
(October 1999), there are only about 380 breeding Sharp-tailed left in
Washington, and they are primarily found in Douglas, Lincoln, and Okanogan
Counties (see the Adobe Acrobat downloadable document at
http://www.efw.bpa.gov/EW/PROPOSALS/AIWP/2000/2000cd/projects/acrobat/9106100.

pdf).?

In light of this, I went back over the field guides and again checked on all
the other possibilities.?None of them seemed even close, although I was still
uncertain about the possibilities of juvenile plumages.? Then, yesterday, I
just happened to be thumbing through a magazine, when I saw my mystery bird!?
I almost fell out of my chair.? The captioned claimed it was a Sharp-tailed
Grouse.? I?m pretty sure that the bird I saw in the field was a little
lighter in color than the one in the picture, but everything else seemed to
fit.?

So now I am puzzled.?Did I really see a Sharp-tailed Grouse, or was it
something else?? My wife and I have been birding for several years now, and
we are pretty good with the common Western Washington birds.? But we have
much less experience East of the Cascades, and this one is tough for us.? If
anyone has any ideas, please send them my way! Thanks.

Hans de Grys
Bothell, WA
degrys at aol.com





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