Thursday, September 04, 2008

Back to Yosemite

Grouse

I'm getting tired of New York pictures. So here are a few pictures of a family of grouse we saw in Yosemite. They were quite unimpressed by the people gaping at them. One even walked up to my son and pecked him on the leg. I didn't have my camera ready unfortunately.

A flying leap

I tried to identify which grouse it is and didn't succeed (I also didn't try that hard) and was dismayed to see many of the Google hits on grouse were hunting sites. It saddens me that a bird that in a national park is quite unafraid of humans would be hunted for sport in nearby private lands. What is the joy in putting a bullet in one of these, or any, animal?

4 comments:

Rayne said...

I've always felt that way about duck hunting. I mean, you can beat it to death with a rolled up newspaper for heaven's sake! Where is the sport in shooting it? It's just not right!
He walked up and pecked your son on the leg? That is too funny!

Anne said...

We lived not far from Yosemite for about 5 years, before moving here.
The beauty of the central Sierras
will be with me always. Not a fan of hunting, either.

Snail said...

I can see the headline now "When grouse attack!"

JL said...

'Joy'?

A feeling of finality and accomplishment, yes.

I live in a place where certain populations are utterly out of control, and hunting is almost a public duty. Without hunting we'd have no plants left.

Mostly, I don't like people making emotive statements about killing animals in a hunting setting. In the managed ecosystem of the USA, it's a critical part of life in rural areas.

In fact, not enough people do it to manage the system, which is why whitetail deer overrun Glencoe.