Sharpies in the Snow
Dec 10 - Why are there sharpies in the snow? We woke up to a covey of ‘mountain chickens’. After a bit of research, we identified them as Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse, also called Sharpies. It was a covey of about 12 individuals. They would perch in the shrubs around the house picking at the buds before changing trees.
The light was not great for photography but here are some of our photos.
Three Birds in a Bush
We are watching each other
Sharpies used to be common all across Colorado but are now only found in the three counties in the northwest corner of the state. They are the smallest of the seven species of sharp-tailed grouse, weighing about 1.5 pounds and are 15 to 20 inches long. You can tell they are sharpies because of the ‘V’ shaped markings on each feather.
Notice the crest and the V markings on each feather
Occasionally one would dive into the snow so that only their head was sticking up.
Two sharpie heads sticking out of the snow.
The bird would then step out of the hole it had just made, while landing, and walk around, make a trail through the snow. You can tell a bird made the trail even without seeing the bird actually make the trail as the snow along the edges shows wing scuffs.
Notice the wing scuff in the upper right end of the trail.
Later we found additional bird trails. These seemed to end under sage brush leading us to believe they may take shelter in the space under sage brush where there is little snow.
Bird Trail to Sage Brush
Considering we have about 4 feet of snow on the ground, the birds are very lucky they didn’t sink farther. I made the mistake of trying to walk in the same area with snow shoes. I did fine until I stepped on buried sage brush. With no snow under the bush, the snow on top caved in and over I went. If I had been a 1.5 lb bird I suppose I would have found it cozy to just stay there.
We watched them most of the morning. The birds would fly from tree to tree while we we scampered from window to window.
These birds return every year to the same location, called a lek, where the males preform a mating ‘dance’ to compete for the attention of the females. If a lek is lost to development, housing, farming, mining etc. it can be lost forever, as the birds don’t know where to find each other. Here is a video of mating behavior.
I also found an old article in our local paper about our local population of grouse.
Update: There is a hunting season for Dusky grouse in our area in the fall. That got me concerned that I had misidentified the grouse in this post. Nope, sharpies have the “V” shaped markings on their feathers and a crest like those seen in this post. The males also have purple neck patches in mating season. Dusky grouse have splotchy feather markings, no crest and red neck patches. And then there is the tail. Dusky grouse tails look like a turkey’s tail, fan shaped, while sharpies’ tails come to a point. I’m glad my research was correct. I just hope hunters know the difference since sharpies are a threatened species here in Colorado.
Dusky Grouse
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