Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Grouse ID? - Help Please

Well, yah this picture is definitely a blue. LOL

Spruce....shoot and eat...

Just forwarded the pic and coordinates to a near neighbor of mine, a professor who specializes in, of all things, grouse. He wrote back the following, "It''s a dusky.. I think."
So there.

Before they changed what we can shoot as a Blue in Oregon. I would have been plucking that blue for camp dinner. Now I have to pack a Grouse Biologist on my back and half the time he has no definitive answer.

Hen pheasant.

Whitetailec ptarmigan have uh, uh, uh, white tails?

It is a hen spruce grouse...

Whitetailec ptarmigan have uh, uh, uh, white tails?

It is a hen spruce grouse...
Geographic taxonomy only goes so far...

The feet are very wrong for a dusky.

1minute;
Good evening to you sir, I hope this finds you well.

Though I don't always comment on them, there's never a time that I catch your wife's crisp and vivid wildlife photos and don't enjoy them immensely.

We're on the border more or less of the dusky/sooty line they drew down the middle of BC, so honestly I'd not venture to guess whether it's either. At our house anyway we tend toward the old taxonomy and call them Blues.

That's a hen Blue in your photo in my opinion.

I couldn't say that I've killed hundreds like some here, but over the years our crew must have enjoyed several dozens for sure.

We don't shoot them much anymore as they've been scarce the last few years. We do herd them off the road from time to time, however....


Thanks again for sharing the photos with us, all the best to you all this fall and good luck on your hunts too.

Dwayne

Show me picture of a blue/sooty/dusky with feathered tarsi...

Dwayne, all I can say is those ARE NOT sharptails.....grin


Great vid.

Sure does share characteristics with spruce hen





And this one

Sam;
Good evening to you my cyber friend, I hope the day treated you all well.

As you can hear me say, they were in front of us - we're in an '03 Dodge in low range, first gear and riding the brakes - for 3 minutes.

Then I remembered that my daughter could take video on her phone and I says - hey, why don't you try to get some video of these guys. So she did.

Thanks for the comment on the reminder of a grand day afield together Sam, all the best to you all this fall and good luck on your hunts.

Dwayne

Having shot a bunch in the last few weeks, including a whole one I am getting ready to skin right now... and seeing the tail, the tarsi, and the head, I can assure you it is a spruce grouse hen a fair piece from home.

Locally we are seeing ruffled grouse in large numbers in areas we have never seen them before.

looks like a bird.

MtnBoomer;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the day was a good one for you and this finds you well.

The Spruce chickens in our part of the world are a tad towards the brown tones - like the photo you put up.

Here's a hen with late, late chicks.


I must add the photo of one chick - our youngest daughter was taking the photos that day.

What you can't see is that her hunting boot toe is just out of the photo.



We were slowly following the hen and chicks when my daughter froze and pointed her camera at the ground directly in front of her.

Anyway it was another grand day afield with one of our daughters - different one than the videographer by the way.

I'm not sure about the feathers on the feet - it could be that 1minutes is a Spruce hen, but up here she'd be awfully grey to be one is all.

All the best to you all this fall MtnBoomer and good luck on your hunts too.

Dwayne

Dwayne, I could hear the ol' Cummins purring in the background!

All good here, feels like fall.......

I'd say it fits as a spruce hen, top to bottom without having to be an oddity (peculiar individual) of a dusky or other.

Even a bat could see these aren’t the same bird...



Cookie captured this yesterday, and would appreciate a definitive ID. We speculate an immature female Spruce Grouse




Sure does share characteristics with spruce hen

Sam;
Thanks for the update - that's good to hear.

Funny how some folks can tell the sound of which diesel it is and others much less so.

I heard a pickup pull in to work the other day and I said, that's not our Ford - '09 6.2 dual turbo engine - I said, it's a GM/Duramax.

Guy I work with raises his eyebrows and asks how I know that?

I replied, "Cause that's what it is...."

Know what I mean Sam?

I know you know....

Dwayne

PS;
Sorry for the diversion to all, back to the gallinaceous taxonomy debate!