Watching Greater Sage-Grouse performing on a lek in a remote area of Wayne County, Utah yesterday morning was an experience I’ll never forget. Ever!
But first a little background. Incredibly, on this camping trip we independently found two active Sage Grouse leks but we never would have stumbled upon the first one without the encounter we had with a lone female grouse that we photographed on a hilltop Saturday morning. She was on the wrong side of the dirt road I was driving so we got out of my pickup, propped our long, heavy lenses on the vehicle and photographed her from that position. The air was absolutely still so soon after dawn and the only sound was our shutters clicking but then I heard another sound coming from far to the west. It was so faint that I wasn’t even sure that I’d heard it but then it happened again and I knew exactly what it was – the air sac popping sounds produced by strutting male Sage Grouse!
These sounds are amplified by the air-filled esophageal pouches and some say they are reminiscent of the sound produced by the uncorking of champagne bottles. They can be heard here if you’re interested.
I told Mia what I’d heard and she instantly said “let’s go” so we left the female on the hilltop and went looking for the presumed lek. And we actually found it at the end of a dirt track “road” that I’d most likely never have taken if I hadn’t noticed the direction the sound was coming from while we were photographing the female grouse. Later I checked the distance from the spot where I’d first heard the sound to the lek and it was roughly .7 mile as the crow flies. BNA says that the sound of performing Sage Grouse can actually be heard from distances up to 5 km (3 miles).
We watched and photographed the performing birds for a while but didn’t want to disturb them so we kept our distance and eventually when the performances were over the birds flew off individually and in small groups.
The next morning (yesterday) we arrived at the lek while it was still dark and photographed them for an hour and 47 minutes. We never got out of the vehicle or even started the engine to warm up a little (it was 21 F. and believe me we almost froze – photography with long lenses while you’re shivering uncontrollably isn’t easy). And we waited until the birds in the area had left before we left ourselves. We were the only humans at the lek and I never once saw any sign of disturbance or nervousness from the grouse.
I took many hundreds of photos of the grouse but I still haven’t seen most of them so this morning I’ll present only one.
1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 4000, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Males competing at the lek often engage in Wing Fights and that’s what these two were doing – lashing out and smashing each other with their wings (you can see a few bits of flying debris above the bird on the left). As you can see this image was taken right at dawn and the light was very low and had barely reached the birds so I had to really crank up the ISO to get enough shutter speed to freeze the action. It’s unheard of for me to use ISO’s as high as this but given the conditions I was pleased with the performance of the relatively new Canon 7D Mark II. If the image had been taken with my older 7D I’d have likely deleted it.
Sorry about all the text and only one image in this post but I thought many readers might appreciate the background info. I’ll be posting more photos of these grouse and their behaviors down the road but as you can imagine I have my culling and processing work cut out for me before that can happen.
Ron
Ron–I think you already have the perfect balance of picture and text. Don’t blame me for what the evil iPad says…it likes text because it gets to mess it up..it hasn’t figured out how to screw up your photos……yet!
WHAT a privilege. What a delight.
And that champagne-cork popping would have been echoed in my heart.
I am (greedily) really, really looking forward to more from this series.
Thank you, EC. It may take me a while to cull and process the images but more will be coming down the pike.
ISO 4000 !!!!!!!!
Are you kidding me?
I’ve just recently started shooting with a 7Dii (my wife blames you) and am impressed with what it can do. It certainly has a learning curve that can be a challenge, but shooting action in available darkness at ISO4000 wasn’t on my radar. It is now.
I’ve been smitten by the Sage-grouse this year. They are a delightful way to start the day shooting and entertaining way to end the day processing images.
Thanks for sharing
Neil
Nope, not kidding, Neil. When I was shooting these birds from almost full dark to bright light I was changing my settings all over the map and when I saw this image I had to go back and double-check that I had remembered the ISO correctly. I had.
If I ever meet your wife I hope she has a forgiving nature… 🙂
P. To the s. I come for the pictures yes, but it’s the education that lifts your blog up to my “can’t miss” list. So text me, fella. 🙂
“So text me, fella.”
Ha, you asked for it, Arwen! We’ll see if I can provide…
Great shot. What a reward for you!
Yes, it was, Arwen. Thank you.
Fewer photos, more text please…Patty’s iPad
I’ll try to arrive at a good balance between images and text, Patty.
Great shots! Great luck! Great determination! The one on the left is definitely a Cock Nest Monster…..
Thanks, Patty.
Patty, my first thought on reading your comment was, “oh, Patty, you didn’t…!! But I love it.
I loved it too, Susan but then my sense of humor can be a little warped at times. Happy to have the company!
It’s clear from this photo that one of the birds was slapping the other around, and that the slapped one had something to say about it. Great photo! Looking forward to seeing more.
Susan, they were actually BOTH slapping each other around. These birds meant business!
Beautiful! Another “day maker” for me! Enjoy your day.
Thank you, Claudia.
Ron, I can’t believe how good these images are with an ISO of 4000! The highest I have dared to go was an ISO of 1K, but now you have given me confidence that I’m not wasting my time going higher.
Great picture, and me to, can’t wait to see your other shots of these lek participants.
Dick, I was quite impressed with the image at this ISO, too. The Mark II will definitely allow me to alter some of my shooting habits, for the better.
Great image but I can’t take my eyes from those settings. Did you use any noise compensation?.
And Ron don’t apologize for the background info. It’s priceless at least for me and I am sure for most of your readers.
Jorge, No, I didn’t use any noise reduction in processing or in camera. All I did was remove the upper background from the sharpening mask to avoid any further noise caused by sharpening. I’m glad you appreciated the background info I provided.
Congratulations on this discovery, Ron. I’ll be looking forward to seeing more images from the lek.
Thanks, Justine.