Just Hanging Around…by Brad Marks

We are now in a do not pass Go, do not collect $2000 straight line to Christmas. We made it through the day we give thanks for what we “have”, quickly followed by the US tradition of stomping/clawing/punching/gouging/insulting and other equally rude behavior to get all the things we “don’t have”. The irony in the juxtaposition speaks volumes for our society. Luckily, we checked out of that scene many years ago. It is time to haul out the red and green decor and have the annual discussion with the boys that Santa “is” allowed to come down our chimney that one night of the year – excessive barking could result in a stocking full of coal. Note, last year Ruger responded with “Screw it, that fat sooty ass is mine!” (now that is a cocky puppy who knows what list he’s already on ha). Ruger has been (slightly) better this year so we’ll see how he reacts to the home intrusion. He does give a perfect lead in to today’s post from Brad. Continuing the game bird theme, here’s another one of his intriguing adventures.

Take it away Brad…

One thing I didn’t expect to be doing was standing in line at a National Park to experience the scenery.  But that’s just what happened at one area of Yosemite.  While Jan and I were waiting for our turn to get a photo of Yosemite Falls without a million tourists in our way (not much of an exaggeration on a late summer Saturday), we began chatting with the family next to us.  They had been in the park for a few days and were heading out the next day.  The gentleman said since we were just starting our visit, we must make sure to head to Glacier Point before leaving the park.  Often times advice is worth just what you pay for it.  However, this advice turned out to be pure gold.  He also said to make sure we were there before sunset for the best view.

Late one afternoon, later into our visit we began the drive to Glacier Point overlooking Yosemite Valley.  Jan and I, OK really just me, didn’t anticipate the number of cars also heading the same direction.  We were in a minor traffic jam inside the park.  Luckily for us, most of the cars were shooting right past the turnoff for Glacier Point.  I felt glad to be free of the taillights in front of us.  But my shoulders slumped a bit when I saw a sign for “only” 16 more miles of twisty roads.  The first mile was all switchbacks, but from mile two to the summit was a smooth ribbon of newly paved asphalt with gentle curves.  Jan and I arrived at the summit with time to spare before sunset.

I parked the rental car in one of the few spaces I could find near summit. The elevation was over 7,200 feet for those keeping score at home.  Jan and I began the quick walk to the point to see Yosemite Valley from a completely different perspective.  A few feet into the journey, there was a group of people looking over a fence into some low scrub brushes.  That usually means there’s something worth taking a peek at.

Sooty Grouse by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to read about the fruits of the peek!

Most of the tourists were glancing at the birds for a second or three, and then resuming their scurry to the point to see the scenery.  One family was hanging around, watching.  They were nice enough to make room for us to take a few photos.  Fully aware the sunlight was obscured by clouds before we arrived, the award-winning scenic photos we hoped to get were no longer possible.  The dad in the other group, was telling me that the bird was either a Sooty Grouse, or a Rock Ptarmigan.  The gentle cooing noises were not loud enough for Merlin to identify our new photo subject.

Sooty Grouse by Brad Marks

I had to wait until we got back to the 1G mobile service in the lodge to be able to identify this bird.  I was hoping it might be a Ptarmigan, a first for Intrigued, I think.  But after checking the range maps, this was the only bird like it possible for the area.  And since there were young ones nearby, I figured it was not a migrating bird, but one that was supposed to be there.  Turns out, this is a family of Sooty Grouse, another +1 for this trip. 

This female had her brood nearby.  While she was in the open, the younglings were sticking close to the foliage as the light faded.

Sooty Grouse by Brad Marks

To the casual observer, she is trying to look coy by hiding behind grass. Actually, the grass was in the way and we couldn’t move for a better photo.  But the first excuse sounded better

Sooty Grouse by Brad Marks

I was beginning to get the impression the paparazzi (us) were becoming a bit much for the birds.  But they never really retreated very far before moving right back where they started.  Must be an obscure grouse ritual when cameras are involved.  The Sootys certainly didn’t seem to mind all of the foot traffic a mere ten feet away from them.  

Sooty Grouse by Brad Marks

The Sooty Grouse is the third largest grouse in North America.  Most species of birds have ten tail feathers; the Sooty can have between 15-22 tail feathers.  Sorry, we did not get to see the full display.  Plus, there were no male grouse around to offer a full display.  Sooty Grouse spend most of their day resting and feeding, foraging on the ground for insects.  Populations are declining slightly with no obvious causes outside of known habitat loss areas, which puts the Sooty Grouse on the Watch list.  The female will lay 5-10 eggs and incubate them for 25-28 days.  Chicks usually leave the nest within a few days of hatching and follow mom around fending for themselves and learning how to be a Sooty Grouse.  The chicks are able to make short flights on their own at 8-9 days, and full grown at 13 weeks.  The chicks we saw were not quite full grown and were still hanging around with mom.

We eventually left the Sooty Grouse family to their nighttime rituals and went to see what we could still see.  Some of the clouds cleared for just a few moments. This is what we were able to see.

Sooty Grouse by Brad Marks

Now I know why we were told to be there before sunset.  Hard to plan for clouds though. 

On the way back down the mountain after enjoying the sunset at an overlook, Jan and I had another surprise.  The headlights on the rental car didn’t work.  At all.  Oh sure, the daytime running lights were on, but they were about as efficient as a candle in the wind (apologies to Sir Elton John).  I learned that if I held on the bright light lever, I could have some lights, but the blinkers would turn on and off sporadically.  Good thing there were a few cars in front of us to help guide us down the mountain.

Thank you for reading. If you want to see more Sooty Grouse photos, please visit here.

Credits:

Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing.  Thanks to Jan for some of the photos in this article.

40 thoughts on “Just Hanging Around…by Brad Marks”

  1. Those birds are just plain grouse. And beautiful. Excellent photos. I have never seen a grouse that I know of. I just checked and there are Dusky Grouse above 7000 feet in north-central New Mexico. It is hunting season for them until the end of December, so there is a large enough population to be hunted. Maybe I have seen Dusky Grouse, but didn’t know what I was looking at.

    I’m happy you survived the day of Thanks, Brian. We made it through, and even though my favorite color is black, and I wear all black all the time, I avoid Black Friday like the black death. Laurie’s making noises about getting a real Christmas tree this year. That would be a first in our going on 42 years of marriage. I’m an old bah humbug curmudgeon when it comes to Christmas and any holiday celebration, with the exception of World Snake Day in July (don’t tell Linda!).

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    1. I’ve seen one Grouse in my life and it was a Ruffed up in Minnesota near the Canadian border. Going to have to have a talk with Brad for showing me up ha! Do you listen to Johnny Cash while wearing all black – Be careful, too much black and pretty soon when you see a red door [you”ll] want it painted black. I love me a fresh Christmas tree and had one ever since Linda and I were dating..until last year when we broke down and bought a 12 foot artificial one. The tipping point was getting tired of having to taking the real one completely down and haul it out of the house before we head south the following day. They make some really nice trees these days..for a pretty penny of course. Linda wants to know WHAT THE HELL IS WORLD SNAKE DAY..note, there were other words used in that response I filtered out for the young at heart ha.

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      1. I started wearing all black all the time in 1993 in protest of Clinton’s retroactive tax hike. I’ve listened to lots of Johnny Cash since then. And David Allen Coe, too. But then again, I listened to both of them long before 1993. I’ll send you a reminder of World Snake Day next July with photos of Blue Boa hugging me. I’ve been thinking I should do more selfies of me with old Blue.

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        1. Now that is commitment to a cause! You are into Linda’s realm with the whole country music arena – although for the record, Johnny Cash did cover Nine Inch Nails. Sounds like you want to end up on Linda’s “list”…warning, she can hold a grudge for decades hehehe.

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          1. Most rockers love Johnny Cash. Unlike the country scene, the rockers always respected JC. I’ve always liked a variety of music and different styles of music. I never understood people who only like one style of music and will die for it.

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            1. I’ve been exposed to a wide variety and can appreciate the “good” parts in all – Father liked western, Mother liked country, steeped in the classic rockers from my brothers, relished the shoe-gaze and then the grunge years in college which I still enjoy the most today along with a heavy dose of the hair ball genre. Went to a play last night featuring actors portraying the night Cash, Elvis, Lewis and few others jammed at Sun Studios. They Christmased it up which I didn’t care for.

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            2. Stupid Christmas! My mom liked big band, jazz and rock. My dad like country and I got all the pop, rock, and early metal from my brother in the 60s up to the early 70s. In the 70s I hated Disco and the Bee Gees for many good reasons. But I have come to appreciate both in my old age.

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            3. I have not warmed up to Disco yet…maybe in a few more years/decades. I’ll still stop and listen to a Marty Robbins song whenever one happens on as memories flood back of my father. I will admit I do not like Jazz. I am sure it is an acquired taste, but like a dry wine I’ll make a hard pass. I can see all those musical influences in your hilarious parody songs!

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            4. Do your remember Disco Duck? It was a parody of disco (maybe it was serious) that was worse than disco and it hit number one! The 70s had some sad times when it came to music.

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            5. I do remember Disco Duck – not proud of that, but I admittedly I remember it. Top this day I immediately turn the station whenever I hear a Bee Gee song come on – unfortunately, Linda likes ABBA so I can’t turn that off while she is with me. ACDC and ABBA – something just wrong about that.

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        2. That was the year I had to re-file/amend taxes for the two prior years, not a pleasant experience. The tax rules changed how some company benefits were taxed, to our detriment.

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        3. I was able to see Johnny Cash at the Cheyenne Rodeo when I was much younger (summer 1977). He wasn’t performing at the time, but was doing an interview from the press box and walked down the stairs right in front of us. No one would have noticed him, just another person moving to/from the press box, until my sister yelled out his name.

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    2. Thanks Tim. I wish I’d see the male Sooty, but it was long gone having propagated the species. We had live trees until one dripped sap all over our carpet, ornaments, and presents. I do miss the smell of a live tree, but not the mess before, during, and after its use for the holidays. Our new one, close to 9′ ceiling height, just drops artificial needles every now and then. No watering either.

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      1. Tree sap is nearly impossible to clean. Which reminds me, during my three weeks as a boy scouts, we went on a camp out. The older boys decide to haze the new kids in the troop. They stuffed one kid into an Indian oven and peed on him through the hole in the top of the oven. The depantsed another kid and stuck tree sap with stickers in it on his testicles. I got a pretty good beating while being held down, and felt up by the other boys. After that I just said no to Boy Scouts. My dad was disappointment I didn’t stick with it. He had been a scout master for years. He would not have put up with that kind of nonsense. While I was a long-haired hippy type weirdo freak in those days, I was not depraved.

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        1. We were able to salvage most of the ornaments and we snipped off the drips from the tips of the fibers on the carpet, leaving only a few things ruined. The kind of “camping” activity you mentioned gives Scouting a bad reputation. Don’t you wonder sometimes how those other boys turned out? Do you think they looked good in bold horizontal stripes or faded orange coveralls with their initials DOC on the back?

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            1. Definitely no issues like your pack, but it was clear pretty quick it wasn’t for me – it was an extension of my Catholic grade school and held in a spooky basement of their first church in the school’s playground. First group camp outing there were kids bawling for their mommies – thought those bears are going to eat well if they ever encounter one of them. I presumed my dad would be more demanding I stick it out, but was surprisingly cool about it and took the time to teach me all the things I needed to know to survive…without the stupid patches hehehe.

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            2. I didn’t get the idea behind Boy Scouts for someone like me who lived in the country on a small farm and knew how to survive pretty well. My brother came close to being an Eagle Scout. I was too rebellious and anti-authoritarian to fit in with boy scouts. I would never have survived in the military if the draft had continued and I was called up. I couldn’t even get through high school as I dropped out when I was 16.

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            3. I didn’t have a real cause growing up so no rebellious life for me. Parents were pretty firm (but fair) and didn’t want their boys getting off on the wrong foot. Good grades, jobs in high school, mandatory college, etc, etc. I definitely can’t complain at the end results. Father was in the Army (Korea) and I think he was able to instill a lot of that military discipline in us without us knowing ha.

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    1. Thank you very much Kaya. They were a new bird for me as well. They were certainly used to having people only a few feet away. Great for photographers, not always great for the birds.

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  3. The things some folks will do for a bird photo op. (Not that I would know, of course.) Terrific find! Love that shot of Glacier Peak. Heading down the mountain with no lights is not at the top of my “fun things to do” list.

    Thank you for doing the hard work to bring us this post!

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    1. Very welcome. I’m sure the extra risks will be adequately reflected in my year-end bonus from the Intrigued corporate offices. We might have made it to Glacier Point a bit earlier if I had known that the headlights didn’t work. Live and learn. Thanks for stopping by Wally.

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  4. Love those sooty grouse! They would definitely blend right in to any granite rock field or snow-dotted mountainside. Adventure certainly sought out the two of you that day!

    We’ve been happy converts to artificial Christmas trees, after our last live (well, not exactly) tree spent all summer slowly shedding its needles in our back yard, a sad testament to too many overtime hours, and an eyesore our neighbors thankfully forgave. But for us, the signature event is setting up the model train railroad, which occupies the front room during the month of December.

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    1. Thanks Sam. We, too, have a model LEGO train running around one of our Christmas trees; it’s the original LEGO train from 1990. Thankfully, the few live trees we have had at this house ended up providing shelter for small furry woodland creatures in the ravine behind our house.

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    I started following it. I hope you also follow my blog and exchange we see and we read.

    TOGETHER WE BELIEVE IF WE HELP EACH OTHER.

    Greetings from Spain 🇪🇦
    Blessings and happy day 🌅

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