Easy ansers

Not a great deal going on down at the estuary this evening - the highlight was a flock of 35 white-fronted geese that passed over (pictured), heading south.
Another group of 13 followed some 40 minutes later, though this smaller group set down on the outer marsh. 
Other than a wisp of 4 Wilson's snipe and a hunting juvenile northern harrier it was altogether unremarkable.

On another note - those of you reading this back in Blighty, might be interested (or amused?) to learn that while British birders are marveling at the arrival of buff-breasted and pectoral sandpipers on UK shores, the locals here have been getting all twitchy over a ruff.
This bird has been wowing the crowds on the south of the island, at a consistently productive site called Whiffen Spit. Needless to say, I didn't go for it...

Infamous grouse...

Okey dokey. Let's have a look at the 2nd mystery bird thing...

Well, it's definitely a grouse of some sort.
So, let's have a look first, at ruffed grouse. 14% of participants went for this species. There are few things that don't work for me, as far as this ruffed is concerned. No discernible crest, a lack of continuity in overall colour (ruffed are usually grey or rufous, not to my knowledge a mix of both - the pictured bird has both greys and browns in its plumage), there's no sign of a dark tail band and the bird appears to have a comb above the eye (lacking in ruffed).

How about Famous Grouse? Well, I was delighted to see that 7% voted in favour of this substandard blended Scotch whisky. Thank you for joining in with my crap gag.

Spruce grouse? Hmm, some good features in favour of this. And 21% of you agreed. That heavy pale scalloping on the flanks, the reddish(?) coloured comb, the white feathering around the eye, above the bill and sneaking onto the cheek... but what about that distinctly pale grey tail tip?

So, what about sooty grouse? A whopping great 57% went for this. The aforementioned tail tip certainly suggests this species, and the comb on this relatively newly split species does average darker than on interior dusky grouse. Also that pale feathering on the flanks does not suggest the heavy white spots, as should be seen on a spruce. Oh, and I photographed it in Tofino, which, of course, you didn't know...

In conclusion... well done, it is indeed a sooty grouse. Though, I feel that I must point out that it was still a blue grouse when I took the photo.  

Now, have a go at the latest one. Not quite so easy as the grouse, but not as tricky as the sparrow. I was tempted to put 'Duck' as one of the options...