OUTDOORS/SPORTS
East Oregonian
B2
Saturday, October 16, 2021
Fright in the forest: The sudden flight of the grouse
BRAD
TRUMBO
UPLAND PURSUITS
A
heavy fog hung over the
ridgetop, cloaking both
hunter and elk in a drip-
ping haze. The ponderosa pines
wore a coat of white fuzz over their
somber, green needles — the only
green to be had in early Decem-
ber. The mercury hung around 35
degrees Fahrenheit, leaving condi-
tions somewhere between misera-
ble and tolerable.
Stalking quietly along an old
logging road, I stopped to gaze
upon a long-forgotten cable log
skidder perched on a landing
below the road. What was once red
or orange steel had been replaced
with a cancerous, dingy rust and a
variety of brown and blue lichens.
Imagining the logs being trans-
ported to the ridgetop, I turning to
continue in the assumed direction
of elk.
The road began winding down
and cut deeply into the mountain-
side. A young fir stood at the toe
of the uphill slope, flanked by rose
and elderberry, growing in the
opportune light of the road open-
ing. There was nothing remarkable
about this particular spot; however,
I recall the location perfectly as the
details of terrifying situations either
scar us for life or become tucked
into the deepest, darkest corners of
memory, only to resurface with the
assistance of a psychologist. A blue
grouse exploded from beneath the
fir, nearly taking my right leg out
on its panic-stricken flight to safety.
Nearly everyone who has set
foot in the major mountain chains
of this great nation has suffered
near cardiac arrest thanks to our
continental “King of the Woods,”
the ruffed grouse. The vibration of
wingbeats and leaf litter left tussled
in their wake is enough to spook the
ON THE SLATE
Saturday, Oct. 16
Prep volleyball
Nixyaawii at Wallowa,
10 a.m.
Griswold at Joseph, 10 a.m.
Nyssa at Irrigon, 11 a.m.
Vale at Umatilla, 11:30 a.m.
Nixyaawii at Joseph, 1 p.m.
Griswold at Wallowa, 1 p.m.
Pilot Rock vs. Grant Union at
Enterprise, 1:30 p.m.
Vale at Irrigon, 2 p.m.
Pilot Rock at Enterprise,
3 p.m.
Burns at Umatilla, 3 p.m.
Prep girls soccer
Four Rivers at Irrigon, 11 a.m.
Ontario at McLoughlin,
noon
Nyssa at Riverside, noon
Prep boys soccer
Four Rivers at Irrigon, 1 p.m.
Ontario at McLoughlin,
1:30 p.m.
Nyssa at Riverside, 2 p.m.
College men’s soccer
Blue Mountain at Treasure
Valley, 2:15 p.m.
Southern Oregon at Eastern
Oregon, 4 p.m.
College women’s soccer
Blue Mountain at Treasure
Valley, noon
Southern Oregon at Eastern
Oregon, 6:30 p.m.
College volleyball
Eastern Oregon at Walla
Walla, 8 p.m.
College cross-country
Eastern Oregon at LC State
Warrior Invitational, TBA
Tickets:
Continued from Page B1
The ease of technology
turns most any smartphone
into a ticket scanner, provided
the venue has a cell signal. An
app is used to scan tickets. For
a single high school event, the
battery usage and amount of
data used to run the app is
minimal.
Schools will no longer be
responsible for large sums of
cash. Money for digital tick-
ets goes directly to an OSAA
account, with no cash or credit
card slips left at the site.
Digital ticketing also will
give a more accurate atten-
dance for events.
The first few rounds of the
playoffs will prepare fans for
the state finals, where only
digital tickets will be accepted.
“At OSAA State Champi-
onship events, there will be
no cash transactions or point
of sale system on site,” Stan-
field said. “All people entering
the event must have a digital
ticket.”
National Park Service/Contributed Photo
A sooty grouse in breeding display.
Notice the gray band around the
tip of the tail fan and yellow air sacs
on the neck.
Brad Trumbo/Contributed Photo
A large male dusky grouse hunted among ridgetop conifers.
most seasoned mountaineer, but add
that explosive power to a bird the
size of domestic chicken and you
will come to realize a terror rivaled
only by a charging grizzly, unless
expecting the bird sitting some-
where beyond the nose of a point-
ing dog.
I am either an old timer or nitwit
because to me, blue grouse are blue
grouse, but ornithologists recently
suggested otherwise. By recently,
I mean blue grouse were thought
two distinct species — the dusky
and the sooty — in the Lewis and
Clark days. They were then lumped
into “blue grouse” in the 1900s, and
again separated in 2006, but are
still referred to collectively as blue
grouse.
Current range maps of dusky and
sooty grouse show the sooty grouse
hugging the western Sierra Nevada,
Cascade, and Coast ranges, while
the dusky grouse occurs east of the
Cascades through the Rockies.
Physically, sooty and dusky
males vary in appearance. Our
Jeff Foott/National Park Service
Male blue grouse with air sacs
inflated during a mating season
display.
local dusky males boast a solid
black tail fan, red neck air sacs that
are displayed during the breed-
ing season, and an overall brown
appearance. Sooty grouse have a
darker overall body appearance, a
lighter tail fan with an ashen band
on the tip and yellow air sacs. It is
possible for these species to over-
lap and interbreed along their east-
ern Cascades dividing line.
While both species overwinter
in coniferous forest, their breeding
habitats vary widely and include
shrub-steppe, steppe, mountain
shrub, open coniferous forest, clear-
cuts, old growth forest and alpine
tundra. Both species nest on the
ground beneath the protection of
plant cover and within one mile of
conifers.
Both species are managed for
hunting and big dusky grouse can
be found in Northeastern Oregon’s
Blue Mountains. Dusky grouse
typically occupy higher elevations
than ruffed grouse. When you find
dusky grouse, continue to hunt that
approximate elevation. Preferred
habitat includes timber edges, open
timbered slopes and mountain
meadows with nearby water. Insects
and berries, such as currant and
chokecherry, are good food sources
in September. Later in the season,
dusky grouse move higher in eleva-
tion into the conifers for winter.
While I prefer hunting birds with
a dog, blue grouse can be found
by simply hiking along the edge
of clearcuts and other changes in
vegetation types and densities, and
can be found mid-morning pecking
soft greens on the ridgetops under
conifers. I have never encountered
more than a couple birds at a time,
but rumor has it that dusky grouse
can be found in greater numbers in
close proximity to one another.
October is a fine month to hike
the grouse woods. I can think of
no finer grouse hunt than walk-
ing semi-open ridgetops behind a
couple pointing dogs as the daytime
highs decline and the yellows and
reds of autumn foliage fleck the
conifer forests. The golden hours
of the shoulders of the day are call-
ing, as is the impressive flush and
humble beauty of our big dusky
grouse of the Blues.
———
Brad Trumbo is a fish and wild-
life biologist and outdoor writer
in Waitsburg, Washington, where
he also actively serves the Walla
Walla-based Blue Mountain
Pheasants Forever chapter. For
tips and tales of outdoor pursuits
and conservation, visit www.
bradtrumbo.com.