The grouse visited me yesterday. About twenty of them. I saw them out of the corner of my eye from the office and then went to the window and watched them.
Pheasants tend to strut along, pausing only when they sense trouble. Grouse are well-trained little infantrymen. They move a yard or two and squat. Then two or three will get up and run a jig-jag pattern for five or so yards while the others watch. Then the advance party squats and watches while the former coverers advance through them to the next squat-and-watch. I get a kick out of them. They really have no need for advanced infantry school.
Didn't get any pictures this time. They are very skittish this time of year it seems. If I opened the front door they would fly off and miss their quota of cedar-berries from the big tree right out front.
Emma saw them from the living room and came into the office to tell me she had to go potty really, really bad. Instead of the front door, which she went to, I said she had to go out the back into the enclosed area between the house and the shop building and she lost interest in potty right away.
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A few years ago Kansas started transplanting some Sharptails in northern Ks. I have yet to see one but keep looking. This excites me to no end. I really enjoy seeing and sometimes flushing Prairie Chickens.
They are beautiful in a more subdued way than the parisian bawdy lady Pheasants.
It just feels right to see a native species where it's supposed to be. I wish Grouse were more populous in Ks than they are.
We hunt antelope just north and east of Chugwater, WY. Its a 3rd generation family ranch where "improvements" are relegated to water impoundments and hay fields. Both of which draw the prairie ghosts.
While hiking the long, north and east facing arroyos where currants, scrub juniper and buckbrush tumble all together, we have learned to keep an eye out for sharptail. Delightful birds to watch in formation.
I've never shot one. Somehow, the .270 Win. seems to be a complete distortion of the hunt.
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