Sunday 2 February 2014

Sharptail Grouse (20140201) As promised a series of great (IMHO) Sharpie shots.

Rarely do we get the opportunity to view such a "flighty" bird at such a close distance.

I am very happy that we were able to spend 5 full minutes with this bird in the morning while on our way to our destination. And since we left as we had found it, undisturbed and comfortable, we were able to find it again almost 3 hours later in very close proximity to where we left it.
It was terrifically entertaining to watch as this bird walked around in the snow, jumping for berries and then getting up into the bushes.
Seeing how these graceful birds, not unlike all grouse as far as that goes, get their chow without any hands:)
I believe it is also a great opportunity to better study the feathered feet and sharp tail that gives this bird its name.
We were really appreciative of being allowed into its environment and life for even these 15 minutes so that we could be enamored by its presence.
These are the types of encounters that keep us heading out to the woods, if it is not with a grouse it could be with at bear or moose.
Amazingly even with all their familiarity with their surroundings and environment occasionally even nature stumbles or loses its balance.
But then again, they are also provided the tools that allow them to "recover" with no harm done.
And, just as with this morning, we left the bird just as we had found it. No harm no fowl:)
While this bird treated us exceptionally well, we were also very pleased with our encounter with the Rough Legged Hawk earlier in the day, so I thought I would throw a shot of that bird in as well. This was just prior to "take off" :)
I hope everyone had a great wildlife weekend, and are looking forward to "then next outing"!
Turbo



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