Cock Dusky Grouse

This cock dusky grouse was both amusing and frustrating to photograph. I heard him "hooting", which consists of the bird puffing up his throat sacs, seen on either side of the neck, and making deep, low vibrations. The vibrations can be difficult to hear, and often times are described as being felt, rather than heard.

I started looking around for the source and found this grouse sitting in the shade of a large spruce. And then commenced an interesting game of cat and mouse. I would advance slowly, and once I was at a distance of about 10-15 meters, he would put up his fan-like tail and waddle away. He never went far, sometimes only moving a few meters. But as soon as he was out of sight, I could hear him hooting again. It was like the classic saying "out of sight, out of mind." It's almost as if he forgot about me once he couldn't see me.

Eventually he tucked himself in some brush and I got down on my belly and army crawled to within 5 meters and was able to take some photos. There was a lot of grass and twigs and other distracting organics around, but I couldn't move or I would risk starting the whole process over. Eventually he hopped up into a tree and I had to be content with the ground shots I got. Captured in north Idaho's Selkirk Mountains.