{"id":83344,"date":"2020-03-29T06:22:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T12:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=83344"},"modified":"2020-03-29T08:47:44","modified_gmt":"2020-03-29T14:47:44","slug":"sage-grouse-beer-cans-and-intrepid-bird-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/29\/sage-grouse-beer-cans-and-intrepid-bird-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"Sage Grouse, Beer Cans And Intrepid Bird Champions"},"content":{"rendered":"

I always thought beer cans were single use containers. Silly me.<\/p>\n

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1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 1600, 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 male Greater Sage Grouse was displaying on a lek in Wayne County, Utah five years ago today (3\/29\/2015).<\/p>\n

Readers know I have a soft spot for Sage Grouse but they’re under threat and their numbers have declined dramatically. Fences, particularly barbed wire fences in the American West, have contributed significantly to their decline. When these large, heavy-bodied birds gather on their leks in the pre-dawn darkness they often don’t see the fence wires in time so they inadvertantly fly into them. When these 3-6 lb. birds hit a fence at up to 50 mph the results are reliably catastrophic.<\/p>\n

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In recent years in an effort to prevent such collisions from happening Sage Grouse advocates have been flagging the fences with plastic markers that are much easier for grouse to see in low light. This is a flagged fence in Wayne County within a few hundred yards of a Sage Grouse lek. There are five strands of barbed wire on this fence. Notice how much easier it is to see the two strands that have been flagged.<\/p>\n

But these specially designed plastic markers are a relatively new innovation. Before they were available very few fences were flagged and Sage Grouse paid a heavy price.<\/p>\n

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Carel Brest van Kempen is a Facebook friend of mine. Even though he lives here in Salt Lake County we’ve never met but I have great respect for him on multiple levels. He’s a world renowned wildlife artist and the most broadly knowledgeable person I know when it comes to the natural history of local, regional and world-wide birds and wildlife. Recently when I published my blog post about the dangers of barbed wire fences to pronghorn<\/span><\/span><\/a> we had an online conversation about the similar dangers of fences to Sage Grouse.<\/p>\n

He told me the basics of a fascinating story that I find truly inspiring.<\/p>\n

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Copyright Carel Brest van Kempen. Image used by permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

Back in the early 2000’s Carel and his friend Steve Chindgren tagged many miles of Wyoming barbed wire fence with, of all things, empty beer cans They punched a hole adjacent to the opening of each can and ran a short length of baling wire through the hole and out the opening and then used the wire to attach the can to the fence wire. The cans were donated by the Eden Saloon<\/span><\/a><\/span> in tiny Farson, Wyoming (pop. 313). They tagged this particular fence in the spring of 2005.<\/p>\n

Carel told me “We walked those fences the following year and didn’t see a single dead grouse where we would have seen dozens in previous years. The newfangled plastic tags seem to work just as well and are easier to attach and most probably last longer.”<\/p>\n

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Copyright Carel Brest van Kempen. Image used by permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is an injured male Sage Grouse that had almost certainly struck the fence we see in the background (only a single strand of barbed wire can be seen). Notice the blood streaming down the side of his neck.<\/p>\n

When I heard that beer can story from Carel I asked him if I could share it on my blog and he generously agreed. Steve Chindgren tagged Wyoming fences for many years, eventually moving on to the new fangled plastic flags. The entire project was really Steve’s.<\/p>\n

These days especially birds need advocates. Carel Brest van Kempen and Steve Chindgren fill that need admirably.<\/p>\n

But one of these days I need to ask Carel and Steve if one of their incentives for tagging the fences was emptying the beer cans in the first place…<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n

Both Carel and Steve are giants in their respective fields. In my opinion and in the opinion of many others Carel’s wildlife paintings are unsurpassed in their beauty, accuracy and attention to detail and his artistic skills have been widely recognized for decades. Steve is an internationally known falconer, bird trainer and educator. It’s been said that Steve “may, in very fact, know more about the natural history of Sage Grouse (and how to hawk them) by having personally found and witnessed more grouse rise than any man living.”<\/em><\/p>\n