High Sierra Topix

On several occasions, usually in the spring time, I'd often hear a low pitched and hollow hooting sound off in the distance. It was a sound I never have forgot and one I was always curious about, but I guess never curious enough to find out what it was. But it has always been one of those sounds that brings back a flood of memories.

Recently while trying to ID a bird I saw near Goodale Pass earlier this year, I came across the sound and realized the whole time I was listening to the mating call of a Blue Grouse. huh...never would have guessed. But I've been playing it back over and over, trying to bring back those memories....obviously, its been too long since I've ventured into the mountains
I can't post the sound directly, but if you want you can listen to the call on the following link:
http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/234/_/Blue_Grouse.aspx

Same thing occurred with me; scroll down a couple of pictures and read my brief version above the Grouse.

http://www.theradioroom.org/MineralPeak ... lPeak2.htm

Not too many years back, when I first started hiking in the Sierra, I was solo in Kings Canyon for the first time and I thought for sure it was some large animal hanging around. Little did I know it was a small bird.

Great pix of birds in mating plumage and display. At one time I thought they were the sound of bears mating off in the distance!

I'm glad I wasn't the only one imagining some strange animal(s) in the bushes
Shawn, thats a cool pic (and TR). I know I had read through that report a while back, but didn't remember that image in particular. Thanks for posting.

That's always been one of my most favorite but also most unsettling sounds in the mountains. I remember having my spine particularly tingled when I heard it on the way out of the Ansel Adams wilderness via the "Spooky Meadows" trail (except it was the Minarets Wilderness then...)

It's always sounded to me like somebody softly blowing across the top of a bottle...

Not only do they sound great, but when you're walking along, minding your own business, the female will just explode out of a bunch of willows or something -- wings whirring. Enough to give a guy a heart attack. The chicks blend in incredibly to any terrain, but especially forest. I've come very close to stepping on them. I'll spot one or the female and, approaching, notice that I'm about to step on a tiny one.

You can get within feet of them. A place I almost always run into a female and chicks is just past the Kearsarge Pass/Kearsarge Lakes trails -- on the high trail heading for Charlotte. Dusy basin is another place I often see them.

Oh: once I was skiing out of Ostrander Hut just after a snow storm. Found a mysterious hole, a few weird tracks, then nothing. I'm pretty sure what happened is that a Grouse dived off a nearby tree and created a hole in the snow to take shelter from the storm. Storm over, it came out, walked a few feet, then flew off.

As a side note, I've seen Coyote do the same thing (though they dig the hole, not jump down...).


g.

BSquared wrote: It's always sounded to me like somebody softly blowing across the top of a bottle...

Great description.

gdurkee wrote:Not only do they sound great, but when you're walking along, minding your own business, the female will just explode out of a bunch of willows or something -- wings whirring

That has happened to me so many times, and it never fails to get my heart pumping. I've seen families of them, and they blend into everything so well its incredible.