Grouse Park Waterfowl

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SINCE 1978

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    Great Basin Grouse

    D.o oreiuys

     

    The Great Basin blue grouse are residents in the mountain

    ranges of the following areas:The eastern half of Nevada

    and all of Utah. They spend the winter in the higher elvations on ridge tops, much of the tme sitting in a single tree and eating nothing but Douglas fir needles and snow.

    They may spend as much as 10 days at a time in a tree without coming to the ground. There is some evidence that they leave the tree and burrow in the snow if condisions

    get very cold maybe around minus 25 degrees. As spring

    time approaches thy will fly down the mountain to greening

    basin below where the sage brush meets the timber around

    5,000' elvationb. At this point they will pick a terrritory

    called their HOOTING site. Sometimes prime areas wil

    have males every    200'-300' these are called HOTTING

    bands. The females will come down the mountain 2-3 weeks after the  males arrive, around the last week in April,maybe later depening on the spring melt. Once she finds a males she likes,they will breed 1 or 2 times and then

    go off and lay a clutch of 8-11 eggs.She will incubate for the next 24 days and hatch and rasie the chicks on herv own.

    All summer long they slowly work their way up the mountain. They will sstay together until around mid- September.

     

     young male in mid winter

    King George is a 5 year old male

    Another young male late winter.

    male on snow

     King Geroge on a ground pen late  winter

    King Geroge  late winter

    Older male at a HOTTING post.

    Look how big their tail band is  WOW!!

     King Geroge eating Mountain Ash berries!

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