That "grouse" in LandSea03 is a ptarmigan. He was changing his colour from browns to whites for the winter when he led me to his special place on a mossy log while his flock pecked gravel grit for their gizzards on the Grand Traversee foot trail across the Gaspe. That's how I know he was not a grouse, some of his feathers were changing to winter whites. Ptarmigan live in the tundra where they exist at the bottom of the food chain. In the east the tundra occurs farther south than in the west. The alpine tundra summit of Mont Jacques-Cartier is only 1200 meters above the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In the Rocky Mountains, at about the same latitude, the mountain tundra begins around 3,200 meters above sea level.
Toronto is about the same latitude as Portland Oregon.
The latitude of Toronto is about 43 degrees and Kingston is about 18 degrees or; Kingston is about 25 degrees of latitude south of Toronto.
Or...
Why would workers splitting logs for bridges on la sentier de la Grande Traversee make a spillway for fun and why would a ptarmigan stomp on a special place on a log until the moss cannot grow there?
Can, as the Automatists of Quebec believed, a painting be sound tableau?
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