![\"greater](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/greater-sage-grouse-5310-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMale Greater Sage-Grouse fights can be so intense as to cause injuries that range from cuts to broken wings.<\/p>\n
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I thought some might enjoy seeing one of their “battlegrounds” (more properly called a lek)\u00a0where they display and occasionally fight. The\u00a0photo was taken 3 days ago, soon after sunrise, in a remote area of Wayne County, Utah.\u00a0Only part of the lek can be seen in this image, there were roughly this many more birds out of frame to the right. Here you see mostly males as they strut their stuff.<\/p>\n
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![\"sage](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/sage-grouse-3677-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 4000, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, no noise reduction applied,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n This shot of two fighting males was taken very early in the morning, thus the incredibly high ISO (for me at least).\u00a0The wing-slaps of these stocky, powerful birds are quick and forceful so I’m not surprised that they can cause injury. In many of my fighting shots the eyes of one or both birds are closed for obvious reasons so I was happy to catch them open in this one. Based on the curved tips of the left wing primaries of the bird on the right I believe this image was taken just as the wing reached a vertical position in preparation for another attack.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 4000, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, no noise reduction applied,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n This is the next frame. The actual slap was so quick that I missed it, even at 10 frames\/sec, but you can see the reaction of the bird on the left to the force of it. These two combatants battled for some time and they came in quite close to me but they were so focused on each other that they paid no attention to my vehicle.<\/p>\n I still have many hundreds of grouse images to cull and eventually I’ll be posting more images of them. But I’ll try to sprinkle a few breaks with other species in among the grouse posts, just for the variation…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Male Greater Sage-Grouse fights can be so intense as to cause injuries that range from cuts to broken wings.<\/p>\n![\"sage](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/sage-grouse-3678-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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