Spruce Grouse

This morning, fog swirled around, cool and damp. We walked down our road and saw gathered near the intersection of our street and a lesser-traveled side street, several spruce grouse. The fog seems to suit them, providing some cover. They were in the ditches, which were hollowed out this summer by the borough road maintenance crews. So there is quite a bit of fresh dirt, and the grouse were probably enjoying a dust bath. Last year about this time, we had about 10 spruce grouse in our backyard, flying from one spruce to another.