Sage Grouse- Mating ritual

Rohirrim

I spent Sunday night/Monday morning at a Sage Grouse Lek again. What a fascinating experience. I went up Sunday night to set up a blind near the Lek, then got a few hours sleep to be in the blind at 4AM. At 5AM I could hear the Male Grouse flying into the Lek. They are pretty big birds and fly low to the ground so they sounded like 747's flying right over the top of my blind. It was pretty cool watching them "strut" their stuff, fight with each other for control of their territory. I will probably post several series as I have over 200 photos of the experience.

They stayed at the Lek until about 7:15AM until after the females leave, then they all take off to get some rest for the next day.

This was the dominant male:

EXIF
Camera: Canon 20D
Lens: Canon 500 mm L, f/4.0 + 1.4xTC

Fighting for territory - the male on the right had just knocked over the male on the left

EXIF
Camera: Canon 20D
Lens: Canon 500 mm L, f/4.0 + 1.4xTC

Big time Wrestling - two males jockeying for position

EXIF
Camera: Canon 20D
Lens: Canon 500 mm L, f/4.0 + 1.4xTC

Part of the "fighting" is using their wings to "beat" the ther male off

EXIF
Camera: Canon 20D
Lens: Canon 500 mm L, f/4.0 + 1.4xTC


Sitting pretty - strutting his lovely tail feathers.

EXIF
Camera: Canon 20D
Lens: Canon 500 mm L, f/4.0 + 1.4xTC


Thank you for looking - C&C always welcome,

Dee

These are amazing!
How fortunate you are to be able to not only witness this, but to get such great photos of it too!

Harryb

Outstanding Steve. Fascinating subject captured well.

jwear

bravo i would get up early for this one nice work steve

riddim_maker

Bravo!

Rohirrim

Dee wrote:

How fortunate you are to be able to not only witness this, but to get such great photos of it too!

Thank you Dee. I really did feel fortunate being able to witness this fascinating behavior.

Rohirrim

Harryb wrote:

Outstanding Steve. Fascinating subject captured well.

Thank you Harry.

Rohirrim

jwear wrote:

bravo i would get up early for this one nice work steve

Thanks Jeff. You should consider driving up next year, I could take you there. I'd offer this year, but I don't think I'll have time to get up there again until after the mating season.

gluwater

Excellent Steve . These shots really inspire me to go out and shoot to get better. #4 is my favorite really showing the action of the moment. Looking forward to seeing more of these.

Thusie

Gorgeous! Would really, really like to have one of those shots hanging on the wall herethumb

Osprey Whisperer

<best Curly from 3 stooges>

LOOK AT THE GROUSE

LOOK AT THE GROUSE



Nice set of shots, Steve. Very interesting bird. Mating rituals eh?

ginger_55

Oh, My, Steve, You are Good, and so are they, smile!

Really interesting, awesome photography!

ginger

Rohirrim

gluwater wrote:

Excellent Steve . These shots really inspire me to go out and shoot to get better. #4 is my favorite really showing the action of the moment. Looking forward to seeing more of these.

Thank you Nick.

Rohirrim

Thusie wrote:

Gorgeous! Would really, really like to have one of those shots hanging on the wall herethumb

Thank you Thusie, I appreciate your kind words. If your serious about getting a print of one of them, I can make them available to you on my site.

Thusie

Rohirrim wrote:

Thank you Thusie, I appreciate your kind words. If your serious about getting a print of one of them, I can make them available to you on my site.

Yes Steve I am actually interested.:):

Rohirrim

Thanks Mike and Ginger. I had a great time shooting these birds.

BigAl

Great series Steve!

Do you have a pic of your hide (blind)?

Rohirrim

BigAl wrote:

Great series Steve!

Do you have a pic of your hide (blind)?

Yup, here it is. I took this shot after all the grouse left that morning. Worked well for the grouse, I don't thint it would fool ducks though.

rene

Wow, amazingly good!
What's a lek? I've never heard of that before.

Ric Grupe

Outstanding!

Looks like something I would see in the National Wildlife Magazine.

Rohirrim

rene wrote:

Wow, amazingly good!
What's a lek? I've never heard of that before.

Hi Rene,

Thanks for the comments. A lek is a Communal Courtship grounds used by some species of birds for mating. For some reason the birds choose these areas as their courtship area. Every year the males go to these areas early in the morning and go through rituals to attract females.

Rohirrim

Ric Grupe wrote:

Outstanding!

Looks like something I would see in the National Wildlife Magazine.

Thank you Ric, I appreciate your king comments