Spruce Grouse in Cook County
2017-11-03

'Rare Regular' in Minnesota

Thanks to Josh Watson, the MN Birding Weekends group saw this male Spruce Grouse off Coyote Ridge Rd just W of Grand Marais. This spruce tree was right next to a house under construction with constant activity from workers (including Josh) less than 50 feet away. The most surprising thing is that this site is less than a half mile from Highway 61, while normally this species only occurs 15 mlles or more inland from Lake Superior. The only other documented record I'm aware of in recent decades this close to Lake Superior was of a male photographed by Andy Nyhus a few years ago at Iona's Beach SNA in Lake County.

Kim R. Eckert, "digibin" image with 10x32 Leica binoculars.