Parent and 2 chicks--chicks had lots of white on them; parent was pretty much plain tortoise-shell brown/black all over, black spot on the face. Didn't see any white patches on the parent, but she was standing in ground cover. No ruff on the head like a Ruffed Grouse would have. My bird i.d. skills were badly compromised because of the drama a few yards down the trail: a mother bear was sending her 2 cubs up a tree and stood on the trail guarding the tree and watching us, so we were trying to enjoy the bird family a few yards from our feet while backing slowly away from the bear situation in front of us. Multi-tasking!

BTW, this was on the Lakes Trail about 1/2 mile down from the connection with the Skyline Trail out of Paradise.

Brenda Burnett

Seattle

beaknbird at hotmail dot com