This morning was twenty years in the making and it DID NOT disappoint! The Sharp-tailed Grouse was a species I sooooo wanted to photograph on their lek. I have tried over the years many times to get on a Sharp-tailed Grouse but with no success but finally two weeks ago, it came true. Why were they so important to me? This vanishing member of our great central grasslands was the inspiration for many cultures and its performance one I’d seen in photographs since I was a kid. Seeing it in person let alone photographing it has always been on my top five list of wild heritage experiences. To look through the window and see them thirty feet away at the Calamus Outfitter blind was for me, a dream come true!
Smaller than the Prairie Chicken, even though they share the same habitat, they are very different. You can see how they look differently. They utilize the same habitat but evolution has changed the way they attract a mate. Where the Prairie Chicken jumps and does battle, the Sharp-tailed Grouse drums their feet madly on the ground and then goes running towards each other only to stare at each other until doing a little hop and going back to drumming. The lower photo is a “hybrid”, a grouse & chicken grouse combo (on the right) who is so confused. He still jumps like a chicken in the air causing true grouse to cock their head in bewilderment. The biggest part of the story you can’t get from these stills is the sound. The drumming of all the grouse on the lek is heard long before you can see the grouse. And when they start up, it’s deafening and when the stop, all in concert, the silence is deafening! I shot from the bus blind with the D5 / 800mm which made it possible to watch just the grouse and not the photography. The experience was long in coming and well worth the wait. I can’t wait until next year to spend more time with this very special and unique member of our wild heritage.