Sage Grouse Males

Gallery: AvianPosted November 6, 201432,767 views7 comments

The sage grouse lek we photograph during our Malheur photography tour every spring was burned in a wild fire two summers ago. As a result, the number of displaying grouse has been significantly less the past couple seasons. I am hopeful they will recover to the numbers we've seen in the past. This year we saw seven birds, as where in the past I have seen up to 30 birds displaying here. On the bright side though, the lek is visually more appealing now, this year is the first time I have seen numerous wildflowers blooming here, along with more of a variety greenery. I am eagerly looking forward to re-visiting the lek next spring, my fingers are crossed there will be more birds.

Canon MKIV; 600mm & 1.4x; tripod; 1/200; f8; ISO 800; manual settings with spot meter; slightly cropped all around.

All your comments and suggestions are very much appreciated.

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Hans Overduin on November 7, 2014 at 5:51 AM

Wow, nice mood in this image.. Like the colors and composition. Hope the site will recover in full ! Cheers, hans

Registered on August 31, 2011, 491 Posts, 3807 Comments

Comment posted by Ralph Kerr on November 7, 2014 at 8:30 PM

Nice photo, Ken. I sure remember that spot, and the birds, but didn't know it had burned. Good luck next spring.

Registered on January 30, 2007, 369 Posts, 852 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on November 8, 2014 at 1:46 AM

Effective use of backlighting. But wow, they don;t let you get very close: 600mm and 1.4 TC.

U.S. Army Alaska routinely trashes the Sharp-tailed Grouse leks here. Pretty annoying.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on November 8, 2014 at 2:30 AM

Ken,
I too like the mood, very interesting behaviour.
The comments about the military ranges are strange considering the ones in the UK are some of the best wildlife areas and were used for the reintroduction of the Great Bustard.

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments

Comment posted by keith mitchell on November 8, 2014 at 10:17 AM

Ken agree with Han's a real moody shot, nice bits of colour and soft light ,like this a lot.

Keith.

Registered on July 12, 2008, 127 Posts, 1735 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on November 9, 2014 at 6:13 AM

Great light and setting Ken

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on November 11, 2014 at 3:56 PM

Great to get 3 in the frame and I love the backlighting. Ideally a little bit more space between them would have made this even better but nothing you could have done about that. Sweet shot.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments