<< Speaking of Winter

10/28/10 - Just Grousing

We often see blue grouse in the drainage ditch on the side of the road. They seem to like these ditches, but we know that they actually live all over the North Olympic Peninsula. In the summer they are out in the alpine fields, but in the winter they head lower to the forests where it is nearly impossible to spot them. We say nearly, because we saw these two grouse right on the Lake Angeles trail. They are most likely mother and chick, and they were quite unperturbed by our arrival, use of the flash and animated conversation.

Grouse always remind us of Walt Kelley, he of Pogo fame. Kelley always said that the mongoose is a singular animal, because no one could say two of them. Is the plural "mongoose", "mongooses" or "mongeese"? We wonder the same about grouse. Is it "grouse" - as we've used here, "grouses", or "grice"?

The trail

A grouse - slightly blurred - They kept moving.

Another blurred grouse, or possibly the Loch Angeles monster

Keywords: grouse, lake angeles