{"id":42440,"date":"2016-09-30T05:13:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T11:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=42440"},"modified":"2016-09-30T05:46:08","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T11:46:08","slug":"interpreting-sage-grouse-breeding-behaviors-on-the-lek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/30\/interpreting-sage-grouse-breeding-behaviors-on-the-lek\/","title":{"rendered":"Interpreting Sage Grouse Breeding Behaviors On The Lek"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve come across an excellent resource for explaining Sage Grouse lek behaviors and I simply had to share.<\/p>\n

Most of us have seen photos and watched videos of Sage Grouse displaying on their lek (a display ground where courtship behaviors occur). And some\u00a0have even been lucky enough to visit a lek in the early morning and watch these amazing behaviors but few of us understand what we’ve seen.<\/p>\n

Some examples:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"sage-grouse-3861-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

1\/640, f\/6.3, ISO 1600, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why do the males wrap their wings around their inflated throat pouches and rub them together?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"sage-grouse-4385-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

1\/1250, f\/7.1, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

What could the function be of those ridiculous-looking bulges that pop out momentarily during the display?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"sage-grouse-3820-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

1\/800, f\/6.3, ISO 1600, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why does he heave that inflated pouch upward until it often completely engulfs his head…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"sage-grouse-3823-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

1\/800, f\/6.3, ISO 1600, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

and then drop it back down in a big “plop”?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"sage-grouse-3525-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

1\/800, f\/6.3, ISO 2000, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

How are the females (there’s one here in the background carefully watching the male) judging the performances of the males in their attempts to decide which one they will mate with?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"sage-grouse-3798c-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/5.6, ISO 4000, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why do the males often fight so viciously?<\/p>\n

These and many other questions are answered\u00a0in\u00a0four short video clips\u00a0(averaging just over 2 minutes each) recently made available by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Each\u00a0is brilliantly done and both the quality of the videos and their narration\u00a0are excellent. If you have any interest in\u00a0or curiosity about\u00a0Sage Grouse behaviors I highly recommend that you watch each of them, preferably in the order\u00a0I’ve presented them because\u00a0they build on each other.<\/p>\n

The Male Display<\/a><\/p>\n

Female Connoisseurs<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s My Turf<\/a><\/p>\n

Elite Males<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kudos to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology! I’m delighted to see high quality documentary scientific\u00a0resources meant for public consumption that aren’t overly dramatic and sensationalized in their presentation and narration.\u00a0I believe that deplorable trend originated with cable TV and it\u00a0has pretty much engulfed the entire documentary industry – even some of the previously well-respected\u00a0big players in the field have been seduced by it and I’m extremely disappointed by that trend. To me it’s just another example of the “dumbing down” of America.<\/p>\n

Sorry for the\u00a0editorializing but I thought it had to be said…<\/p>\n

Thanks, Cornell – you resisted!<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Note: Each of these images was taken on a lek in Wayne County, Utah in late March of 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

I’ve come across an excellent resource for explaining Sage Grouse Lek behaviors and I simply had to share.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42442,"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":[334,394,1558,391],"tags":[2932,1560,3135,1647,140,2031,2183,1598,2779],"class_list":["post-42440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-fighting-bird-behaviors","category-greater-sage-grouse","category-nesting-and-mating","tag-breeding-behaviors","tag-centrocercus-uophasianus","tag-cornell-lab-of-ornithology","tag-courtship-display","tag-fighting","tag-greater-sage-grouse-3","tag-lek","tag-sage-grouse","tag-video"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/sage-grouse-3798c-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-b2w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42440","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=42440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}