Mama Grouse

It is July 10 and the weather is perfect, lots of sunshine with dry air. Last week it felt like the tropics around here, with high temperatures and high humidity. This week feels like heaven.

After dinner, we decided to take the dogs for a walk up in some high country, where a breeze might blow the mosquitos away. The old road in to where we planned to hike is rougher than a toad’s back, so we had to inch our way along.

In a stretch where the foliage on either side of the road was as thick as a wirehair’s coat, a grouse stood in the road. We stopped. Then there were three more, then two, then some disappeared and then three ran across while a straggler flew back behind us, then another dashed to the left and another one flew into a fir tree.

One was definitely larger, probably the mom, and there were probably six young ones half-again larger than a quail. Hopefully she was teaching them roads are a dangerous place.
It sure was fun to see.