Big Horn Mountain wildlife

[dukhnt]

I went to the big horns over the fourth. Mainly to help my buddy scout for elk. He will be bowhunting them in september. We did do some trout fishing. Found a good river and the bite was on. They sure are tasty in the camp fire. And the wildlife is abundant out there. Here area a few pics from the trip.

Moose were everywhere.

We found quite a few elk. Unfortunately we did not get realy close to any bulls when the camera was along.

Mulies were everywhere

Some type of grouse. This bird was big.

Bluebird

And a scenic shot

[Steve Foss]

Nice work, Josh. Especially like the single portraits of the elk and the muley playing peek-a-boo. The scenic overlook shot reminds me of my time in the high country, too.

The grouse is a blue grouse.

[finnbay]

Very nice! Lots of variety. I went through the Bighorn's over the 4th as well, and saw moose and mulies but not the rest of the stuff you got shots of. Well done!

[eyeguy 54]

I rally like that grouse too. sharp!

[mmeyer]

Awesome stuff Man! Looks like a fun trip.

[ShawnZ]

Great variety sir! The elk in the mist is a fantastic image, love the mood and the slope.

[Matt Breuer]

That grouse looks like a male dusky grouse to me. Awesome shot!

[psepuncher]

Not many people make that trip.

It's an awesome place to test the car brakes.

Good luck for the Elk hunt,

and thanks for the pictures.

The grouse looks like some kind of hybrid.

Better known as Sage Grouse or Prairie Chicken.

We used to call them Sage Chickens back when I was a kid.

[Matt Breuer]

Never heard of a hybrid grouse before... It's either a sotty or a dusky, can't see the sub-terminal band on the tail or I'd tell you for sure. Both are birds on my life-list!

[harvey lee]

Very nice, I truely enjoyed them all.

[Steve Foss]

Ooops, didn't realize they'd split the blue grouse species in two. Sometimes it's hard to keep up. Time to see if there's a newer version of the Sibley guide. Mine is nine years old already!

Matt, thanks for the correction.

To be clear, the grouse quite recently would have been called a blue grouse. Within that species there were two populations, the Pacific (sooty) and the Interior (dusky). The populations interbred freely where their ranges overlap, and within both populations, northern birds tend to be darker than southern birds. The location of this male grouse alone is probably enough to label it sooty. There are other key field marks distinguishing the two that are not visible in this photograph, but one field mark is. The strong white mottling of the feathers clinches the deal, since the dusky has a good bit less mottling than the sooty.

DNA tracking has indicated the two species should be separated, and that's what was done. But if they bred with each other where range overlaps when they were considered one species, no doubt they're still doing it even though they are considered two species now. Betcha that makes for some ID challenges in that overlap zone.

[dukhnt]

That info on the grouse is very interesting. I know that there must not be alot of them. I have been out there the last two years and this was the first one I have seen. It sure was very cooperative. Let me take a lot of photos on the ground and up in the tree.

[Matt Breuer]

They are very closely related to the spruce grouse, another species not often seen, but semi-handicapped when encountered....