By Stan Tekiela
The rights of spring come in many different forms, shapes, colors, and patterns. But the end goal is always exactly the same—reproduction. In nature, everything can be boiled down to one of two things, finding food to survive and mating for reproduction. It’s as simple as that.
So, this spring I have been out capturing images of a couple different species of grouse. In my last column I wrote about the Greater Prairie Chicken, a species of bird that was once widespread and numbered in the millions and is now barely hanging on and extinct in much of its former range. This time I am looking at the Sharp-tailed Grouse.
Once again, I found myself getting up at 4 am, packing up what I will need for the morning and heading out to my old truck in the dark. A short drive later, I arrived at the location where I would find the second grouse species of the spring. When I opened my truck door, I could immediately hear several male Sharp-tailed Grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) calling in the dark.
This time I packed up two long lenses, a 600 mm prime lens and a 100-500 mm zoom lens. With these large and heavy lenses, I definitely needed a tripod to hold them up while capturing images and video. I also grabbed my small single person photo blind which has a chair built into it. With this blind, I can pop it up and get inside in less than one minute. This is critical to causing minimal disturbance to the birds.
After a short walk, I arrived at the location. I needed to assess approximately where the sun would be rising so I could place my chair blind in the best location with the sun at my back. This will provide the best light on the dancing grouse when the sun rises. Working quickly, I set up the chair blind and set up the tripod and mounted the 600 mm lens and camera.
I covered up and waited in the dark for the birds to arrive and the sun to rise. Within one minute I could hear and start to see the first of the Sharp-tailed Grouse walking and flying up to the dancing ground. The dancing ground, also called a lek, is typically made up of short grass vegetation. A lek is a communal area in which two or more males will gather and perform a courtship display. This isn’t limited to grouse species. Many species of birds, insects and mammals use a lekking performance area when it comes to mating. The grouse are just the most well-known species for using a lek.