Certainly not to impress me with it’s survival skills. I was driving toward Bodie on Highway 270, west of Murphy Spring. As I rounded a bend, the bird you see here was ambling slowly, very slowly, across the road. Whether from confusion, fright, defiance, or an instinct to be still and blend in, it was in no hurry to move out of my way, despite the lack of cover. Fortunately, there was no one behind me. I slowed to a stop and let it toddle off the road.
Around the next bend, sometime earlier that morning, another sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) had not been as lucky as this one.
Copyright © Tim Messick 2015. All rights reserved.
Plants of the Bodie Hills 