Jim and I have noticed that sage grouse broods seem to be larger, and do better, in pastures where our sheep are grazing. Our observations are anecdotal of course, but we figure there are a couple of reasons why grouse do well with livestock grazing. The presence of our guardian animals (both guardian dogs …
Tag: sage grouse
Cock Fighting, Naturally
It’s that time of year again: Greater Sage Grouse are gathering on their leks (breeding grounds), with plenty of strutting and displaying by the males in attempt to impress the females. I’ve spent the last three mornings on a lek near our home in western Wyoming, and today was the only day I’ve managed to …
New range
We got the sheep herd moved to new range today. We’re in the foothills of the Wind River Mountains, and this private pasture is about seven miles from where a black wolf was seen in another sheep herd the day before. Federal control efforts on this pack of sheep-killing wolves continues. Wolves in Wyoming are …
Wyoming
Every spring I try to take one person who has never been to a grouse lek out to see the sage grouse strut. This morning I took Haley out to a lek not far from home. We were driving in about 20 minutes before sunrise, rolling through the lek (which is adjacent to a gravel …
Legal cock fighting
I’ve spent several sunrises this week on local sage grouse leks. It would be a shame to live in such great grouse habitat without going out to witness the activities taking place on these traditional grouse leks (breeding grounds) at this time of year. It’s early in the breeding season, and the cocks are doing …
Just us chickens
I now have a close personal relationship with two broods of sage grouse, and Jim says I’ve got to end it soon. I know he’s right, but I hate to have to do that. The two broods – one with five youngsters, and one with six, range close together and I started to see them …
Spring strut
It’s official: spring has arrived in western Wyoming, as evidenced by the number of Greater Sage-Grouse on the lek I visited this morning. Leks are traditional strutting/breeding grounds for this biggest of our native grouse species. I usually set April 1 as my target date to visit leks, but with warm temperatures and most snow …
No hen could resist this
Grouse leks are traditional breeding grounds that are fairly large open areas surrounded by sagebrush. Generation after generation of grouse use these traditional sites. This morning, I went to what is usually a very large sage grouse lek to find only about 60 birds on the vast breeding ground. Last year there were a few …
Bird karma
I’ll do a bigger post about this very soon, but I spent a little time this morning on a sage grouse breeding ground, which is called a “lek.” Since I live in the sagebrush sea, and love early morning photography, I have a choice of about a half-dozen leks that are located fairly close to …