Dear Tweeters,

I forgot to mention this question in my earlier post.

Yesterday, I heard several Blue Grouse hooting in the area of Cascade Pass.

Quite a while ago, I found some interesting Dusky and Sooty Grouse range maps on the web, and saved them to my computer. They are signed "Kelly Cassidy, 2003."

According to these maps, I would have heard Sooties around Cascade Pass, but it looks like there are Duskies just a day's hike to the east.

The two birds that I got closest to were right on Sahale Arm, in the lower part. Each bird was hooting from a tiny clump of small evergreens. I'd say that the clumps were about the size of McMansion living rooms, the trees perhaps four meters tall at most--slender little treeline evergreens, small enough to be Christmas trees for somebody with goodly ceilings.

Never could I see the grouse, although I walked into one clump and tried to get a view.

The vocalizations consisted of five hoots, the last of which with a bit of a "bend" or a two-note quality to it.

I don't ever remember finding Sooties in quite such an alpine locale, but then, I have seen most of my Sooties much lower down in the Skagit Valley.

Any thoughts on these birds?

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch ? Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA ? garybletsch at yahoo.com ? ?