COLORADO 2011: The Low Booming of a Dusky Grouse

Day 6 / April 12 – Having been unable to locate Lewis’s Woodpeckers (above) in Palisade yesterday, we ventured to Fruitgrowers and found three birds cavorting in a cottonwood tree. They differ from other woodpeckers in that they love to make numerous short sorties, just like flycatchers. They also have very rounded wings making their flight reminiscent of a rowing action, as opposed to the undulating flight that we are accustomed to seeing from woodpeckers. While the woodpeckers create nest holes, these holes as well as the natural cavities in cottonwoods become homes for other species. Today we witnessed American Kestrels competing for cavities with European Starlings in the same trees the Lewis’s Woodpeckers were using.

The Black Canyon of Gunnison, with its 2000 foot canyon walls, is just another one of the many scenic sights that one encounters driving most of the state of Colorado. We spent the better part of the morning working an area of sagebrush and Gambel oaks in search of Dusky Grouse.

We would encounter many Cassin’s Finches, a few Spotted Towhees and Western Jay as well as several singing Fox Sparrows, these being the slate-colored race.

Across a gully I spotted a Dusky Grouse (above) moving slowly pausing every few feet to display. From this distance we could not hear his low deep soft boom note, so we made a cautious approach. He was definitely concentrating on the task at hand, showing very well, spreading this neck feathers to reveal a red timpani as he called. Though he spent time on the ground he walked over the snow and into a grove of trees flying up onto a horizontal branch from where he continued his display. We are all in awe of being able to witness this marvelous sighting.

It was 51 warm degrees at 9000 feet in Crested Butte, and not even sunny! Certainly not the type of weather conditions that you desire for rosy-finches.

A search of the town produced about eighteen Brown-capped Rosy-Finches (above) perched in an aspen and making periodic forays to feeders. The flock that numbers 400 earlier in the winter had obviously left for higher ground. Stellars’s Jays, Pine Siskin, ubiquitous juncos and magpies, and a Savannah Sparrow rounded out a pleasant afternoon.