{"id":25985,"date":"2014-08-19T06:21:28","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T12:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=25985"},"modified":"2014-08-19T06:21:28","modified_gmt":"2014-08-19T12:21:28","slug":"centennial-valley-sage-grouse-and-their-potential-listing-as-threatened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/19\/centennial-valley-sage-grouse-and-their-potential-listing-as-threatened\/","title":{"rendered":"Centennial Valley Sage Grouse And Their Potential Listing As “Threatened”"},"content":{"rendered":"

About three weeks ago I was able to photograph adult female Greater Sage-Grouse and their chicks in the Centennial Valley of southwest Montana.\u00a0 This species is on the cusp of a threatened species designation so I’m always thrilled to be\u00a0able to see and photograph them in their natural, wild habitat.\u00a0 Believe me, it doesn’t happen very often.<\/p>\n

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\"sage<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Typically on my visits to the area I never see any Sage Grouse but this last trip was an exception as I encountered groups of them on three of the four mornings I looked for them.\u00a0 One of the primary threats to the species is destruction and fragmentation of their sagebrush habitat so I love photos like this that show them in their natural home.<\/p>\n

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\"sage<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0They’re not an easy species to get a clear shot of because of their tendency to duck for cover into the grasses and sagebrush.\u00a0 This one eventually came out and looked me over for a few moments.<\/p>\n

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\"sage<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0I was so very encouraged to see chicks with the adult females this time.\u00a0 Usually they were buried in the grasses but once when the adults crossed the gravel road in front of me I was able to…<\/p>\n

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\"sage<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

get a few clear shots of several of\u00a0them as they followed the adults.\u00a0 Not a pretty setting but a good look at the young\u00a0bird.<\/p>\n

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\"sage<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This may be the clearest shot I was able to get of an adult in a\u00a0setting I liked.<\/p>\n

Each spring these birds perform their mating rituals on breeding grounds called leks.\u00a0 Many leks have been used for generations – perhaps for thousands of years\u00a0so when a lek is destroyed or disrupted\u00a0by development it’s just another nail in the coffin of the\u00a0Sage Grouse.\u00a0 One such lek close to me\u00a0in Morgan County, Utah is currently under such a threat and local birders and other concerned citizens are making valiant efforts to intercede but it’s definitely an uphill battle.<\/p>\n

If you’ve never seen male Sage\u00a0Grouse displaying on a lek or watched a good video clip of the behavior you owe it to yourself to watch this one<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The potential listing of the Greater Sage-Grouse as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act\u00a0is a highly controversial issue because if it happens many ranchers and energy companies feel threatened by its consequences.\u00a0 The issue is much too complex to do justice to here but here’s a link<\/a> that does just that if you have the interest.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About three weeks ago I was able to photograph adult female Greater Sage-Grouse and their chicks in the Centennial Valley of southwest Montana. This species is on the cusp of a threatened species designation so I’m always thrilled to be able to see and photograph them in their natural, wild habitat. Believe me, it doesn’t happen very often.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[334,8,1558,1493],"tags":[2182,555,2180,481,1839,137,2031,2183,2181,220,1598,1930],"class_list":["post-25985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-ecology-and-environment","category-greater-sage-grouse","category-montana-favorite-locations","tag-breeding-ritual","tag-centennial-valley","tag-centrocercus-urophasianus","tag-chick","tag-displaying","tag-female","tag-greater-sage-grouse-3","tag-lek","tag-mating-ritual","tag-montana-2","tag-sage-grouse","tag-threatened-species"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/sage-grouse-5542-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-6L7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}