Towheeblog

My wife and I are headed home to McMinnville from the Bay Area.  Overnight we are in Mt. Shasta and we got here this afternoon in time to run up to the end of the highway on the south slope of the volcano itself.  Headed back down to town, around 6000′ elevation, I spotted a female Sooty Grouse along the edge of the highway.  Here’s the sequence:Note the decorative drink can cleverly placed in the background.  At first it seemed the female Sooitty Grouse was simply slow-walking across the highway.Then grouselet #1 speeds out from the grass and catches up to mom…then rapidly runs past her to the far side.  Mom continues her slow walk.Nest come grouselets #2 and 3.  Two being faster soon passes mom to disappear across the road.#2 speeds past the halfway line just as mom and #3 get there.At the halfway line #3 passes mom as well.Then just as mom gets to the far roadside, grouselet #4 zips across the highway at top speed and into the grass.  Mom takes a few last glances up and down the road, then she herself melts into the grass and blooming seafoam.These grouse chicks can only be a few days old.  They have given me my best-ever photos of a grouse family.