{"id":30455,"date":"2015-04-03T05:38:26","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T11:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=30455"},"modified":"2015-04-03T05:38:26","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T11:38:26","slug":"sage-grouse-and-fence-collisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/03\/sage-grouse-and-fence-collisions\/","title":{"rendered":"Sage Grouse And Fence Collisions"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Sage-Grouse collide with fences the results are often catastrophic for the birds. And it happens all to often.<\/p>\n

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\u00a01\/800, f\/9, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Greater Sage Grouse flight behavior was shaped by the vast open plains of their habitat when there were no vertical obstacles protruding above the sagebrush which allowed them to habitually and safely fly just above the low shrub canopy without\u00a0having to negotiate obstacles. But when man introduced the now ubiquitous and difficult to see\u00a0barbed wire fence all\u00a0that changed to the\u00a0detriment of the bird. Imagine what happens when a heavy (up to 8+ lbs), fast-flying (as fast as\u00a050 mph) bird doesn’t see a wire and collides with it. Even when\u00a0wires are seen at the last moment this largest grouse in North America isn’t very maneuverable (their flight patterns have been compared to those of B-52 bombers) and collisions are often unavoidable.<\/p>\n

To give you an idea of how lethal these fence\/grouse interactions can be, in one study a two-mile length of Utah fence killed 36 Sage Grouse the first winter it was installed\u00a0and a similar fence in Wyoming killed 21 birds. Fence lethality increases exponentially when fences are found near leks where grouse gather in large numbers in early spring to perform their breeding rituals.<\/p>\n

A method that has proved effective in reducing grouse fence mortality is the placement of fence tags or markers\u00a0on the wires to make them more easily seen by the grouse.<\/p>\n

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I photographed this fence a few days ago\u00a0within a few hundred yards of an active\u00a0Sage-Grouse lek\u00a0in a remote area of Wayne County, Utah. The fence has been fitted with white plastic tags to allow grouse to see the wire more easily. Some fences are “double-tagged” with both white and black tags since the black tags are better seen when there’s snow on the ground, which there often is when the birds are on the lek. Notice how difficult it is to see the relatively new shiny wire (without the tags)\u00a0against typical grouse habitat in the background.<\/p>\n

These tags or markers have proven effective in preventing lethal collisions between wire and\u00a0upland game birds\u00a0of several species. For example, Sutton Avian Research Center has marked over 100 miles of fence where there were frequent Lesser Prairie-Chicken collisions and deaths\u00a0historically and haven’t documented a single collision or death since the fences were\u00a0tagged.<\/p>\n

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Though several different\u00a0kinds of markers are used here’s a closer look at one type I found in Wayne County (I cajoled\u00a0this dandy male\u00a0Mountain Bluebird to pose next to it for a little aesthetic enhancement… ). This photo was taken at the very edge of the second lek we found on this trip.<\/p>\n

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Here’s a visual representation of how vulnerable Sage-Grouse are to barbed wire (image taken two summers ago in southwest Montana). Even though this rusty wire looks relatively easy to see against the green background the birds still often collide with them, especially because they fly into the lek before dawn when it’s still dark.<\/p>\n

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When I first began to notice tagged fences a few years ago, in my ignorance I didn’t appreciate them much for two reasons: the “visual pollution” they cause in remote landscapes and I was skeptical about their effectiveness in preventing collisions.<\/p>\n

Since that time continuing research has\u00a0shown that they are effective in\u00a0significantly reducing grouse mortality\u00a0and to me\u00a0the aesthetic issues that may or may not be caused (depending on your perspective)\u00a0by the markers are a small price to pay in the efforts to save a highly endangered species.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Note: For those who may be interested here’s a couple of links that provide more information about the\u00a0fence-tagging\u00a0efforts and their effectiveness.<\/p>\n