Sorry, resending of previous email.? New Yahoo?format has me confused:(
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Hi all,
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During the last two weeks, I got to spend some quality time with one of the most
cryptically, plumaged grouse in North America. I was fortunate and elated to get
footage of them displaying, dusting, and bonding with each other.

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The video snipets were shot at?Sunrise and Paradise?Mt. Rainier National Park
with different breeding plumage males. With the late, heavy snow fall this
spring, one of the males was extremely late in molting into summer plumage.
Sexual dimorphism was very evident in this pair shown in last video.

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A) Male doing his breeding call and flutter flight against a beautiful
background. Amazing how fast he skyrocketed down the ridge so fast--too rapid
for me to capture the entire flight pattern. This fancy chicken was videoed on
7/10/10 along a more exposed habitat with little snow. His summer molt is more
advance than paired male featured in last video.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C24m-eaHKIg
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B) A male recorded on 7/16/10 trying to conceal himself by dusting and blending
in with the rocks.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFpzpJ_9WMw
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c) A bonded pair videoed 7/24/10 where the surroundings were 80% snow covered.
He is still very white compared to the previous male. Very warm temps this
weekend so birds were panting.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4pjwwCrJ1M
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On a side note/observation: I wonder if these birds molt according to
environment rather than biological stimuli such as amount of light per day,
temperature, or hormones. The one male Dave Hayden photographed at Paradise on
7/10 (where it it was still 90% snow covered)is about 60-70% white. The birds at
Sunrise(where I recorded on 7/10 and 7/16) are almost in summer plumage because
the area was barely snow covered at top. It was really exposed and south facing.
They are clever birds and will try to blend in and can change their plumage in a
week if need be to match the terrain. The male in video B tried to roll in trail
dust to conceal himself. I have seen this phenomenon with rock ptarmigans in the
Yukon early spring. Three, pure white birds that did not molt fast enough to
blend in to the bare surroundings so they rolled in dirt as I closely approached
them. Fun stuff and hope you enjoy!

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?Good grousin,
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Khanh Tran
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ktbirding.com