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Author Topic: Sooty or ruffed grouse  (Read 3265 times)

Offline ruttnbuck

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Sooty or ruffed grouse
« on: April 13, 2017, 10:00:27 PM »
Ok so i watched an episode of meat eater on netflix the other night (season 5 episode 15) and he was hunting sooty grouse in alaska. The noise these grouse make is kind of a whoop whoop whoop , probably 4 or 5 times in a5sec period . By the way i live in thurston county area , but anyways i was our on a evening hike up behind some gated logging roads and starting hearing that same noise in the big timber ...so I've hunted this area for 30 yrs and have never seen a sooty grouse , i know ruffed grouse make the drumming noise which I've heard a million times out in the woods, do ruffed grouse make the same noise also like sooty  or do we have sooty grouse here in western wa???? I've seen a few blues over the years so maybe there blue grouse I'm hearing??   :dunno::dunno:

Offline bobcat

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Re: Sooty or ruffed grouse
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2017, 10:16:28 PM »
"Sooty grouse" is a blue grouse. They decided to change the name a few years ago. Now we've got "dusky" and "sooty" grouse, depending on if you're in eastern or western Washington. They're all still blue grouse to me.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/01312/wdfw01312.pdf

Offline ruttnbuck

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Re: Sooty or ruffed grouse
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2017, 02:33:43 PM »
Wow that's good to know,  i heard probably 5 seperate grouse last night all making that same noise....i didn't realize there where that many blues in this area.  In the last 25 -30 yrs I've probably only seen 3 blues in this area . Thanks!

Offline bobcat

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Re: Sooty or ruffed grouse
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2017, 05:13:53 PM »
I've experienced the same thing. This time of year when I'm out in the woods I often hear a lot of blue grouse in places where I rarely or never see them.

Offline GBoyd

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Re: Sooty or ruffed grouse
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2017, 06:29:23 PM »
I definitely hear blue grouse hooting in places that I never see them during the hunting season. My theory is that they're birds that spend the summers and falls up at higher elevations, but they breed down in the lowlands.

Offline Henrydog

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Re: Sooty or ruffed grouse
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2017, 07:00:46 AM »
That is a big 10-4 Gboyd I have shot a fair amount of Blues over the years, but they are always over the 4000' on the quad sheet.  When I was a kid growing up North of Lake Wenatchee we used to have a lot of Spruce grouse, I have not seen one in 25 years.

 


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