March Madness; Welcome to The Dance

[mtmiller]

Well the April dance should be better.

Found a few sage-grouse a couple days ago, but they weren't getting after it much. Decided to check out a sharpie lek this morning. Only got a few minutes of decent light, but it was good to get out. These guys weren't overly active either.

 

[ashersdad]

Looks like you took advantage of the few minutes of decent light! Very nice!!

 

[fishing4sanity]

Cool photos, I've never been around grouse in the spring, but that has got to be neat to watch them.

 

[Big Fin]

I always watch for your April posts, knowing some great pics of prairie birds will surely follow. Very cool.

 

[JCS]

Great shots, as usual.

 

[kansasdad]

Really cool coloration in their feathers. Nice work as usual mtmiller.

It seems like nature is about 10-14 days ahead of schedule in southern Kansas..... same for you northern/western folk?

 

[noharleyyet]

...always look fwd to you behavioural pic-tutorials.

 

[theat]

wow great shots. Fo a couple of years I spent a week doing sage grouse lek counts down by Bannnack, lots of fun watching those birds strut and fight.

 

[mtmiller]

Thanks fellas. I was going to shoot sage-grouse tomorrow, but weather looks a little risky for the price of fuel. Gotta save that fuel money for WY, CO, UT and SD hunts this fall. Maybe a couple of those anyway.

Really cool coloration in their feathers. Nice work as usual mtmiller.

It seems like nature is about 10-14 days ahead of schedule in southern Kansas..... same for you northern/western folk?

KD, I think we are pretty much on schedule for uplands. I usually start my counts about this same time every year and it appears to be pretty consistant. From the sign on this sharpie lek, they had not been using it very long. In fact, I wish they would knock down some more of the damned crested wheat so I could some better shots.

wow great shots. Fo a couple of years I spent a week doing sage grouse lek counts down by Bannnack, lots of fun watching those birds strut and fight.

theat, work you did on your own or Adopt-A-Lek stuff?

 

[theat]

I think it was the Adopt a lek program, anyway it was through the MWF. I cant for the life of me remember the name of the guy who ran the program at the time, but he was out of missoula and would bring his trailer down to the bannack campground and spend about a month down there counting birds and keeping the rest of us on task.

 

[mtmiller]

Guessing Ben Deeble? I have a couple Adopt-A-Lek folks counting for me right now. Pretty good program, but they are stealing my fun.

 

[1_pointer]

I so miss doing that in the spring! Thanks for sharing!!

PS- You suck...

 

[mixedbag]

actually saw a ruff grouse here all puffed up around the neck and chasing cars that drove by the other day.If it wasn't such a busy road I would have stopped to take pics.Never saw one all puffed up like that before,but I do hear them drumming all turkey season in the spring.Hopefully, I'll catch him out again and get you some pics

 

[shoots-straight]

The annual Mtmiller rights of spring display. Always a sign we've moved on to another season.

I like em.

 

[Horn Seeker]

Dang, those are cool pics Craig.

I should be out a couple days a week for a few weeks now....soooo looking forward to it!

 

[fowladdict]

Very cool photos as always!

 

[jlmatthew]

Love Sharpies!

Keep em' coming!