sagegrouse, you worried???

[grossbus]

The Interior Department said Friday that the greater sage grouse was facing extinction but would not be designated as an endangered species for now.

[weezie]

Is there a greater sage grouse that the great sagegrouse?

[Rich]

Didn't Sagegrouse change his/her name once already due to the extinction of his/her previous moniker?

[77devil]

Didn't Sagegrouse change his/her name once already due to the extinction of his/her previous moniker?

Yes. He used to be Bluegrouse.

[sagegrouse]

Sorry to be late to respond. I haven't been on the OT board in the last few days.

The funny thing is that the designation as a "candidate species" rather than an "endangered species" was approved by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whom I know quite well. We have had events for him at our house in Steamboat while he was a candidate for Senate and thereafter.

I am all for being classified as "endangered," inasmuch as there is still a hunting season for Greater Sage Grouse in Colorado. While it is only one week long, one shotgun shell is all it takes.

The Greater Sage Grouse story is more compicated. My pipsqueak relatives down on the Gunnison River were tired of hanging out with the rest of the family and petitioned the AOU (don't ask) for a separate species designation. Well, don't mess with my guys. We said, "Fine." We need another name as well. So while those runts became the Gunnison sage Grouse, the remainder of the clan became the Greater Sage Grouse. Hah! Take that!

I once was the Blue Grouse on DBR. But the AOU decided that the species should be split to give recognition to a marginally different Cascades Range bird. No one really deserved the Blue Grouse name in their view, so they created the Dusky Grouse and the Sooty Grouse for the Rockies and the Cascades, respectfully. Dusky Grouse? Well, as the wife of an ornithologist friend has said, "Some bird names are so dumb they could only have been picked by a man."

Anyway, back to important things. Grossbus, are you and your bride going to your reunion this spring? My daughter, at least, will be there, celebrating her 15th. [Yikes! 15th?]

Hope all is well for everyone on this thread.

sagegrouse