The grouse, and then the clouds lifted...

Another great day in the park…We headed to Gros Ventre first thing this morning in hopes of getting some morning light on bison and pronghorns. But no luck; we did see a couple of each, but not nearly the numbers of previous days.

So off we went to Oxbow Bend, looking for nothing in particular. It was still somewhat overcast this morning. So scenics were still not a good bet. We drove up Pacific Creek Road to the trailhead. It was a beautiful quiet ride on a gravel to dirt road. We saw lots of birds, but not much else. We stopped for a sandwich along the way, and just enjoyed the solitude.

Then we headed back toward Oxbow Bend, and stopped to watch the swans on the river. Before long we had quite a surprise. A grouse stepped out of the grass just at the edge of the pavement in the turnout. At first we tiptoed around in whispers, thinking that we would scare it away. After several minutes of both still and video photography, the grouse moved toward the road. We were afraid it would get hit by a car. So we ‘herded’ it back toward the grassy edge.

You’ll never guess what happened next. It scooted under our truck, and sat there. It preened, flapped its wings as though to stretch, and then just sat. We tried coaxing it out by slamming the truck doors and stamping our feet on the road side of the truck. Hoping that it would scoot back into the grass. But it did not move, except to change positions under the truck.

It had drawn quite a crowd by this time. Several people came along, asked what we were seeing, and then sat down on the ground to photograph it under our truck. After about a half hour, I decided it was time to move it along. So I extended the legs on the tripod, and began running it along the ground between the front and back tires. The grouse just moved to the area under the front bumper, and out of the reach of the tripod!!

Finally after several more minutes, it decided it was time to leave, and it sauntered back into the grass. The last time we spotted it, it had moved a little further down the turnout and scooted under someone else’s car. Obviously it had very little fear of people.

But as our attention had been trained on the grouse, we didn’t realize that the clouds have finally lifted off the high peaks. For the first time in days we could see the mountaintops. So we turned out attention back to scenics, and began to photograph the peaks before the clouds moved in again. The forecast for the remainder of the week calls for sunshine. We’re hoping the weatherman is right this time.

We hope you enjoyed our grouse experience as much as we did. Thanks for sticking with us…
Fay