Attwater's Prairie Chicken nest photographed at recovery center Sandy here. It is mid-May and most grouse activity at leks are winding down. I dream that all those ladies who are sitting on eggs are safe and a plentiful crop of new grouse are on their way to building the population. This Spring season found me in Eastern Colorado where we had an epic year photographing the greater prairie chicken on a private ranch. Lots of activity including rare sightings at the lek which added to the experience and amused the guests. Burrowing owls and black tailed prairie dogs delighted us with their antics. Everyone was able to tell battling grouse stories in addition to owl mating and more. Below is...
The South Dakota prairie continues to be cold and windy. That did not seem to be a concern for the Sharp-tailed Grouse this morning. We headed out to the lek at 5 am today bundled up again in all we owned since it was 22F with just a slight 11 mph wind gently bending the grasses. By 5:45 am, the birds were dancing all over the lek as the sky lightened slowly before 6:06 am sunrise. We never got the yellow sunlight. Snow was predicted so the sky was low and grey...tough conditions for photographing. In the first image above, the typical hovering aircraft position is one of several behaviors of this grouse species. The males hop a little, strut around in this fighter jet position with very quick short running steps, and then confront another male to begin the dance again. We saw more than 30 birds this morning. It is always hard to count and photograph and keep the trigger finger warm. We were positioned well today with many observation choices.
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