Greater Sage-Grouse Lek 2023

Spring Greater Sage-Grouse

Male Greater Sage-Grouse displaying on the lek.

I had the chance to spend last weekend (4-8/9-2023) with the Greater Sage-Grouse out on their lek in Central Montana. As always, we had an awesome time. There were a little over 40 grouse on the lek which I would say is about average. So that was good to see, being a species of concern, I always worry that some spring I am going to see a decline in their numbers.

The first morning out was fairly cool and we had fairly cloudy skies at sunrise. I am always hoping for at least a little bit of direct sunlight in the morning to help and get some more detailed shots of the birds. We did eventually get a little sun peaking through near the end of the morning, so that was good. We ended up being positioned just a little farther away than I had hoped. While the lek is always in the same general location year to year, where exactly the birds are going to be is always a little bit of a mystery. 

Male Greater Sage-Grouse backlit by the morning sun.

The second morning was very dusty on the lek and we had kind of hazy skies, so it made for some interesting conditions to photograph in. I had also positioned myself a little differently on the lek the second morning hoping to get some backlit birds, as I always like that look when it works out. I would say with the conditions being what they were, it was probably a little bit good and a little bit bad.  

I walked away with a few pictures I was happy with, but I don’t think I created anything new this year that was better than previous years. If you are new to my blog, you can look back at these older posts from years past for some comparison. Sage Grouse March 2021, Sage Grouse April 2021, and Sage Grouse April 2022.

I was primarily shooting with my Canon R5 with the Canon EF 600mm F4 version 2 lens with and without the Canon 1.4x version 3 teleconverter. I also took a few shots with my Canon R6 and the Canon RF 100-500 lens. Please checkout the gallery below for more of the photos from the weekend.

After the first morning out with the sage-grouse I decided to go look for some Ruffed Grouse. Winter has been lingering here in Montana this year, so I was not really able to get into the spots I was hoping to, because the snow was still too deep. I did eventually find a single ruffed grouse, but it was not interested in displaying for me. I am hoping later this spring to maybe get out and try again. 

Ruffed Grouse.

Sharp-Tailed Grouse, April 4, 2021

April 4, 2021 I was able to visit a blind to observe the Sharp-Tailed Grouse on their lek. I had just been out the day before observing the Greater Sage-Grouse, so it was a pretty busy weekend for me. If you are interested in that trip please check out my blog post titled for April 3rd. I probably traveled more than 400 miles in about a 36 hour period to travel east for the sage-grouse and back home and north for the sharp-tailed. Although I was pretty tired, I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to get out and do such amazing things. 

The Sharp-Tailed Grouse gather on a lek similar to the Greater Sage-Grouse, but their mating rituals are quite a bit different. The Sharp-Tailed are quite a bit smaller than the Sage-Grouse as well. The Sharp-Tailed grouse does more of a dance and makes much different vocalizations that consist of some cooing sounds along with some clucks and other calls to attract the females. Instead of the large yellow air sacks like the Sage-Grouse, the Sharp-Tailed grouse have some smaller purple air sacks more on the side of their necks. The grouse also make a strange noise while they are dancing which is difficult to describe. I believe it is caused by the stomping of their feet and the shaking of their tail feathers. If you watch the video below hopefully you can hear what I am describing.

During my visit I saw about 30 males on the lek, but no females. It might be a bit early in the season for the females to show up yet. The grouse were most active before sunrise, so it was difficult to capture the peak of the action as it was still too dark. I arrived at the blind about 5:55 AM and I could hear the grouse show up about 6:10 AM, so I was set up just in time. It was probably a good 15 minutes where I could only wait and listen to them before I could really start to see them. Sitting in the dark just listening to them is a pretty cool experience though. The grouse stayed on the lek initially until about 8:35 AM. They flew off for unknown reasons, sometimes you will see a hawk or a coyote or something in the area, but I didn’t observe anything. I started to pack up my gear and got ready to leave when about half of the grouse came back. So that was pretty neat. They probably stayed about another 20 minutes or so and then took off shortly after 9 AM. While I was in the blind I also observed a ground squirrel, a horned lark, western meadowlarks and I observed some geese and ducks fly by as well. 

The grouse got VERY close to me at times, so close in fact they were inside the minimum focusing distance of my 600mm lens. I can’t remember the exact minimum focus distance, but I think it’s about 4 or 5 feet, so that tells you how close they were. I also had more time and plenty of space so I was able to get my microphone off camera this time, so the audio on my videos is much improved over my previous videos this year. I got an extension cord for the mic and I borrowed a clip off my GoPro so I was able to clip it on an opening of the blind and that worked out well. I had my Canon R5 on my Canon 600mm F4 on my gimbal tripod for most of the morning, but I also had my older Canon 5D mk IV with a 70-200mm F2.8 on a smaller tripod to cover some wider shots. I did swap the 70-200mm onto my R5 for a short while to grab a few still photos and some video at a wider angle as well. I filmed the whole thing in 4k at 60 frames per second. That would give me the option to slow things down a bit for some slow motion, but I did not do that on any of the videos I have edited so far, but I may still go back and do that at some point.

Male Sharp-Tailed Grouse doing a dance on the lek.

Close up of a male Sharp-Tailed Grouse, this grouse was very close, if it was any closer I probably could not have focused on it.

Profile shot of a male Sharp-Tailed Grouse on the lek.