Sage grouse dancing on the desert

The weatherman predicted a beautiful sunrise for Monday morning on his forecast on Sunday night’s news. No – not in so many words; but with “partly cloudy with high winds later in the day” meant the likelihood of a beautiful sunrise to me and I knew where I wanted to be.

At a small lek, a breeding and dancing ground for the Greater sage grouse, I positioned my truck below a ridge where males displayed and fought for the rights to breed the hens. As the eastern sky become painted a brilliant orange by the yet sleeping sun, two males began fighting over the center of the lek. Their wing speed was far too fast for my camera to stop their movements as they clubbed each other against the colorful sky.

The sun was not even up when seven grouse took off. “Dang, it! I whispered to myself as I could barely see two Golden eagles giving chase. Knowing that the displaying birds would probably not come back until the next morning, I headed for I-15 to take me to Dubois, the Clark County seat.

The A-2 Clark County Road from Dubois toward Kilgore was a busy road; I only saw one other human, but just outside of the metropolis of the city. I had to stop twice as two herds of elk thought that they had the right-of-way, and I was not about to argue with them. They were a scroungy lot, losing their neck mane from probably rubbing it off to remove some of the wood ticks that are already gorging themselves on fresh blood wherever it can be found.

I ran into my next flock of displaying grouse where the A-2 Road and Jacoby Road meet. It was a small bunch, so I continued on. A couple miles further at a cattle enclosure with the small building in it was a large flock of about 35 males displaying with about 30 hens wandering through them. A few pronghorns were also in the enclosure, probably wondering what all the fuss was about. With the temperature in the teens there was very little fighting between the males as the hens did not stop long enough to flirt with any of the boys.

The most dominate cock of the lek will occupy the center of it and when the hens are in the “mood” will gravitate to him. Once the hens are ready to begin nesting, about 80 percent of them will hook up with the dominate male at that lek. But the females are not tied to a certain lek and travel from lek to lek according to their whim.

The birds on the large lek too far away for me to get good photos and knowing that many of the hens should have another large lek nearby, I continued east along the road. As I approached two large blue water tanks on the south side of the road, I saw about 30 males displaying close to the road. I slowly inched my truck to the side of the tanks as the males were busy showing off. It was a beautiful sight as they puffed up their air pockets on their chest before deflating them. It was not long before the hens outnumbered the males.

My goal of the day was complete, and the predicted winds began blowing hard enough to chase all the birds to the heavier sage about a half mile away.

The roads off the Red Road will be closed until May 1, where traditionally there have been several large flocks of sage grouse on leks. If you want to see these near-endangered birds do their mating rituals, the birds should continue to dance and display near the A-2 Road between Dubois and Kilgore. If you have never seen them, it is well worth the time and effort to go visit them.