Hi all,

Here is a short YOU-TUBE video of my search for the HOLY grouse on 10/31/2009. These birds were documented near Hart's Pass in Northcentral Washington. Ironically, we found the grail birds lower down after hiking and failing to find them at the 7400 ft summit.

It was extremely windy and icy on the first day with 25-30 mph winds near the top. We had almost given up and drove down a couple of miles before I told Chris to stop at a small patch of low willows to look. Before getting out of the car, I luckily saw one bird literally frozen on the snow about 25 yards away. Then, two more fancy chickens popped out of nowhere.

This is probably a first,documented sighting of them in this exquisite plumage on an open,drivable road in WA. Amazing how they blend in with the snow. The birds remind me of little ghosts walking on the snow.

During the middle part of the video you can hear the female communicate with the young as a raven soared by. They immediately hunkered down and froze as the raptor-like bird approached them closely.

I got close to getting frost bitten but was so excited that it didn't phase me until 20 minutes later. It felt like little needles poking my hands as the wind was relentlessly cold.

Even though they are beautiful in this plumage, I still like their early fall plumage as the contrast is more striking!

Thanks to Chris Stearns for taking the video. The ending was not what I wanted to see, but it was sure FUN.

Sorry about the wind noise! You might need to adjust the volume accordingly.

Hope you will enjoy this somewhat grainy, geeky and goofy video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7lJaq1kFtw

Khanh Tran (Portland, Oregon)

www.ktbirding.com