Bird of the Week – Spruce Grouse
Sometimes overlooked among its more common cousins, the Spruce Grouse is arguably the most handsome of Alaska’s boreal chickens.
Spruce Grouse Male
This handsome fellow was strutting his stuff along Quartz Lake Road. Perhaps more than his cousins, the Spruce Grouse seems to favor crepuscular light, the times around sunrise and sunset. The low light makes photographing this species a bit of a challenge. Because these birds dine mostly on spruce needles, their meat has a turpentine-like flavor. As a result, there’s not much hunting pressure. Yet there’s not a lot of Spruce Grouse around.
For more bird photos, visit Frozen Feather Images.
Got my first NRA membership card today. I neither asked for it nor signed up for it. How does one say F%#K YOU in seven letters or less?
Well, if you need some snow, I suppose I could spare some
But on the road through the pass in the mountains outside Valdez, it’s piled 70 feet deep, blocking the highway, damming the river, threatening to end civilization as they have known it. They would be delighted to ship that pile over to you.
Thirteen below zero,again today. Propane went from $1.89/gal Jan 3rd to $5/gal Jan 23rd. So where is Mikey? “Kaha,Morena.” “He’ll be over there, Lord.”
42 above and mostly sunny here in southcentral Alaska.
Not that I’m rubbing it in or anything.
Rub it in? You? Hah! Still we have had almost no snow,less than three inches I’m guessing.
. Hi inchi ya nani?(whose land is this?) Yangu,yangu,yangu! (mine,mine,mine)
😀
Camptown ladies sing this song,don’t they,don’t they? Camptown racetrack five miles long, oh de doo dah day.
Spruce Grouse is the plane that Harold Hughes piloted while drunk and ended up as iowa’s governor?
Actually it was Howard Hughes, the plane was sheathed in birch (not spruce) plywood, and it was called The Spruce Goose. Other than that, you’re very nearly right.
The largest flying boat ever built is on display at at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon,
There was a little birdie with a yellow bill
That used to perch on my window sill.
I lured him in with a piece of breadf
and then I smashed his @#%#$@# head!
Great picture. We see and look forward to every grouse that visits our “home in interior Alaska”. Grouse blend so well you can hardly see them when trying to count how many of them are in a tree hanging out eating spruce needles. They are suppose to be easy to “hunt”. Grouse are slow, so they are at a disadvantage.
Ain’t this Audubon World’s version of the ditzy,peroxided blonde? Can you rilly walk up and pelt these dummies with a stick? If I am wrong,I will kiss the next one I see on his/her finely feathered fanny.(disclaimer-I reserve the right to substitute the finely feathered fanny of my choice) 🙁
Beautiful!
As best as I can figure out, we don’t get this good looking bird in my part of Alaska.
Very snappy appearance there! 🙂
Thanks WC !
This photo is my first encounter with this particular grouse. Adorable! Thanks, WC.