More grouse and recording with the Nevilles

A 3:00 a.m. start began the week on Monday morning. I headed east to begin the last shorebird survey and found a Sharp-tailed Grouse lek at the beginning of the route. I delayed starting the survey a bit so I could watch the birds displaying. I hadn't been to a Sharp-tailed Grouse lek for a number of years and I had forgotten how entertaining these birds are. The displays are very active with plenty of foot stomping and calling. The most entertaining part for me however was the cessation of displays for short periods of time. At some cue all displaying would stop. It was as if there was a cosmic pause in time, with the birds frozen in mid-dance. The only clue that time was still proceeding was the background chorus of Western Meadowlarks and Savannah Sparrows. Then, with another unknown cue, all the birds would begin to display again, stomping and turning as if nothing had happened. I will have to remember to get back to this lek next spring to take more photos.
The survey went well and I was able traverse some landscape that I hadn't explored before. It was still similar to the route I had done last week with much of the country tilled.
I also spent some time this week with John and Heather Neville. John records bird songs as a consuming hobby/vocation and has produced a number of CD's of bird songs, mostly with Canadian themes. Here is his website. His current project is a CD of prairie birds and I am eagerly waiting for this one to be done. I really like his recordings because he doesn't filter out all the background sounds and it is fun to figure out what other birds are present in the recordings of the target bird songs. It is also much more like really being in the habitats he is recording in and listening for birds. They are also a very nice couple to be in the field with. At last report John had gotten a number of good recordings of species that he needed out of his trip here and I hope that when he finally heads home that he gets good recordings of all of the birds he was looking for.

Sharp-tailed Grouse

Brown-headed Cowbird, mid display.

Tree Swallow at sunset

More lek surveys

I haven't posted much lately because my early morning schedule has left little time for the rest of my duties with work and family. Recent heavy rains have put a damper on my dirt road travels until they dry out so I am finally catching up on other things. One of them being my blog. Anyway, I continued my lek surveys this past week and managed to get a 1/2 ton diesel Ford pickup very well stuck Wednesday morning in creek crossing that didn't appear THAT boggy at 6:30 am but really was THAT boggy. I did hear my first Boreal Chorus Frogs in the creek that morning (nothing boreal about this scene though).



It is amazing where you can get cell phone coverage these days - I hadn't seen a single person in the 3 days I had been doing these surveys, but was able to call the office with no problem and then had to wait the two hours for my boss to make it out to where I was. Saved me a pretty good walk. If the nearest neighbor hadn't been home and the cell phone hadn't worked it would have been a long walk to the nearest help. The good news was that I wasn't that far away from the lek and was able to get the survey done and feathers collected after the birds had left.

Although getting out of bed so early in the morning has been a bit of a chore, I really like being out in the field during that time of day. Watching the eastern skyline start to glow and witnessing the soft morning light creeping across the landscape and bathing the buttes and sage in the soft rosy glow while still waiting in the morning earth shadow of the lower ground is quite calming and makes the rest of the day special no matter what happens (like getting stuck). I am also able to see a number of animals that I would otherwise miss later in the day.



Although watching the sage-grouse display with the morning light behind me is good for watching bird behavior and taking photos, having the birds in between me and the rising sun is visually much more pleasing. From a distance the lek glitters with dancing birds. When you look closer you can see where the flashes of light originate. As a bird shuffles into a turn facing directly towards me or away from me, it rises up and pulls the bend of it's wings to the base of it's neck.



Their stiletto fan tail is blocked by the rising body of the bird, but as the wings brush down their sides, the birds lean forward revealing a corona of glowing silver spikes. The flash of back lit tails can be seen for miles.




Dad and I are going to try to get out to a lek to take some photos on Sunday morning. Hopefully the roads will be dried out by then. I will post photos later that day if we make it out.

Sage-grouse lek viewing

So if you happen to be anywhere near Glasgow, Montana at 0515 this coming Saturday, April 7th you can join us for our second somewhat annual lek viewing trip.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Bureau of Land Management in Glasgow will be coordinating a trip to a local lek for interested people. We did this two years ago and had a pretty good turnout. Looks like the weather might even come around for us this year.
We will be leaving from the FWP office by 0515.