I’d heard the stories. Now I’ve seen the action. Male grouse stalking and attacking anyone who trespasses. Yesterday we encountered a grouse whose possession of a public highway was akin to a bunch of militiamen in Nevada. You get offa my road, dud.

I was guiding Marjorie, a birder from the Olympic Peninsula. We were on a day-long birding expedition and I’d warned her of the territorial male Sooty Grouse I’d seen a few days earlier along this road just outside Ashland. There he was, standing sentry duty along the edge of the road. She wanted pictures, so we got out of the car. A trespass the grouse would not over look, though at first he was casual, stalking us, checking us out but not physically aggressive…at the start.





He would follow us about, pushy but not attacking..at first.



But as we continued to not get the message and hung around in HIS territory his patience waned and the orange eyebrows came out. Then he began pecking. Shoes, pant legs. His first target was Marjorie as she had initially approached him for a photo. Now he was so close she couldn’t take aim. Even after I stepped between bird and birder the male grouse attacked, pecking at my pants leg. He did not attempt to use his large spur.

In addition to the fluorescent eyebrows he began warning calls, a serious of deep throaty “tut-tut-tut” calls similar to what can be heard in the forest during courtship season which begins for this grouse in late winter.

When he left he was still in full possession of the roadside and full possession of his strut.