GREATER SAGE-GROUSE - SPRINGTIME ON THE LEK

Title: GREATER SAGE-GROUSE - SPRINGTIME ON THE LEK
Photographer: James McIntyre
Date: April, 2002
Location: Morgan County, UT
Equipment: Canon EOS-1VHS/EF 600 mm F/4L IS USM + 2.0x I TE/Gitzo 1548 + Wimberley Head/Fuji Provia 100F
Evaluative Metering: +2/3

Every spring, as the snow begins to leave the high desert country of northern Utah, one of Nature's most remarkable exhibitions may be observed. Each day before dawn, dozens of Greater Sage-Grouse assemble on their ancestral lek to begin their traditional courtship and mating ritual. Grouse cocks raise their spiked tail feathers in a crownlike fan, throw their heads back and inflate the large air sacs on their white-ruffed breasts. Suddenly they clasp their wings forward in a rapid motion and emit a loud two-note descending call, "BOOL - DUP!", that can be heard a quarter-mile away. This display is repeated again and again.

Only a few dominant males are successful in attracting females. Once having mated, the diminutive hens retreat silently into the sage brush to raise their broods of chicks as single moms. A few hopeful bachelors linger briefly after sunrise, facing off and staging mock fights. Then they too vanish into the brush to avoid the talons of hungry Golden Eagles.

An hour after dawn, there is no trace of the remarkable event just witnessed.