![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/sage-grouse-3670b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"sage-grouse-3670b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nMayhem in the morning.<\/p>\n
These photos of male Sage Grouse fighting on their lek in Wayne County, Utah were taken on March 29, 2015.<\/p>\n
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1\/2000, f5.6, ISO 4000, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n These two males seemed to take the moment the rising sun reached them as some kind of signal to really lay into each other so I was struggling for shutter speed in the still very low light. I was determined to get sharp photos of the action which meant I had to crank my ISO into territory my camera had never seen, before or since. I’d never shot at anything even approaching ISO 4000 but I knew I’d rather have noisy photos than soft ones.<\/p>\n This photo is deceiving – it almost looks like the combatants were hugging or maybe chest-bumping in celebration but in reality they were intense rivals in the middle of a vicious fight. Part of the reason I like the shot is because there’s a catch light in the eye of both birds which is something I rarely got during the entire brouhaha.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f5.6, ISO 4000, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Both this shot and the next one are a little hazy, especially down low, because of all the dust stirred into the air by the fight. We see very little of the head of the bird on the right but I like this angle on his spectacular flared tail with his rival seeming to look through his spread tail feathers.<\/p>\n The single feather on the ground at lower left is evidence of the intensity of their altercation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f5.6, ISO 4000, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This is another one of those rare shots when I had light in the eye of both birds. Here they were viciously slapping each other with their wings so even with a shutter speed of 1\/2000 their wings were sometimes soft. The dust stirred up by their feet was more evident in this photo than many of the others.<\/p>\n This lek is on a high plateau in a very remote area of Wayne County so it was pure joy to experience all the intense grouse activity in a wilderness location with no other vehicles or people in the area. There are leks nearer to my home in northern Utah but the ones I’m aware of typically have vehicles full of people around them in the morning and I don’t shoot well in crowds so I don’t visit them.<\/p>\n But I paid the price for this unusual opportunity in solitude. Shooting from my open window just before and after dawn in the early spring at that high elevation I nearly froze my arse off! That might have been as cold as I’ve ever been while photographing birds.<\/p>\n But it was worth it, big time.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mayhem in the morning.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/sage-grouse-3705b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"sage-grouse-3705b-ron-dudley\\"")
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