Our latest publication

The North American Grouse Partnership published our article on the Attwater's Prairie Chicken in its Fall 2024 Annual Report.

 




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Weather and Best Made Plans

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  Christine and I thought we would have a solid day of sharp-tailed grouse photography behind us and ready to share images. But with temperatures in the mid teens and wind chill factor at near -3 degrees, we thought better of visiting the blind this morning.  Yes, we "chickened" out. Wind whipped up large particles of dust and flying debris so powerful it was almost impossible to open a car door or a window to photograph from. Smartphones were our friend today. A couple minutes outside the vehicle and you felt your bones begin to freeze, the grit in your teeth and foreign particles in your eyes.  The chances we were going to find any animal out and about, including grouse on a lek, was unlikely. So we made the decision to sleep in and wait until the weather improved. Tomorrows forecast is no different but we have two more days in South Dakota and two more chances at photographing the "sharpies" (sharp-tailed grouse) we came for.  Further disappointing news came from...
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Another day, another lek

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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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Setting up the Blind

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Here we are setting up a blind, or a hide some call it. Basically it is a pop-up tent secured to the ground with tent poles to keep it from blowing away in the wind. Which eventually happened anyway. It has a number of windows so we could photograph birds from inside but those windows are open portals letting cold winds enter. We dressed very warmly.  The purpose of a blind is to make us less conspicuous to the birds we are photographing and best allow the grouse to maintain their natural behavior. By no means do we wish to disturb or alter the courting and mating process. We are here to witness and document activities and better tell the story of declining grassland birds, birds who call prairies their home and who have lost 53% of their population over the last 50 years due to climate, habitat loss and other factors. To avoid any disturbance, is necessary to set up the blind before birds arrive at the lek. So we arrive at our destination and make sure to be comfortably set up ins...
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