Early
on any given spring morning somewhere between the Dakotas and the
eastern flanks of the Cascades or the Sierras, where the sagebrush
grows high and thick far from highways and houses and oil wells, there
will be a clearing where a group of large chicken-like birds with long
pointed tails and feathered legs will start to sing and dance.
 Their
music, made with air sacs in their puffed up chests, sounds something
like the hollow sound made when you purse your mouth and slap your
cheeks or the noise made by a loudly burbling water cooler.
Their dance isn't much more than a brief strut: a couple quick-steps,
wings raised and lowered, tail feathers displayed like a
peacock's. Each
dance lasts but a few seconds, but the audience of female sage grouse
watch with rapt attention, judging each performer with an inscrutable
ranking system that produces a single winner -- an American Idol, if
you will.
The champion (the "master cock") will mate with most of the judges. The
runners-up will watch and wait for another year.
People are not invited to these competitions, but with some planning
and a little luck it is possible to spy on the dancing sage grouse from
a distance at a few well-known "leks" across the country. Leks are
the ballroom floor for the sage grouse dances. They are usually open
areas adjacent to stands of tall and dense sagebrush. The best known
leks have been
used by grouse for decades; others may only last a year or two. In any
given year at any lek, the grouse may or may not show up.
To catch a performance, you must arrive well before dawn and wait,
keeping very quiet, for several hours. Viewing locations have been
established at the Millican Lekking
Site 20 miles east of Bend, Oregon (during the month
of April only) and the Gunnison Sage-Grouse Lek in
southwestern Colorado.
"Bring a scope to accommodate your distance from the birds," advises
Hugh Kingery in Birding
Colorado, where directions to the Gunnison site are published. "We also recommend that you skip
morning coffee because of the strict stay-in-your-car or
stay-in-the-blind rules. "
Sage grouse are extremely shy about their mating ritual. Any
disturbance -- barking dogs, slamming doors, cries of children -- may
cause them to abandon a lek altogether and even give up on breeding for
a season. For a species with limited habitat and declining populations,
this is a serious matter.
Hens usually stay at leks for two to three days for mating, then they
seek out a dense patch of sage, thick and tall enough to protect the
nest and the eggs from predators like eagles, hawks, coyotes, foxes,
badgers and raccoons. The eggs usually hatch about 37 days
after
being laid.
In those eggs, and the ritual dancing that engenders them, lies the
promise of another generation of one of the West's oldest inhabitants.
They herald the arrival of spring on the western plains, as they have
for thousands of years.
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Birding Colorado
Over 180 Premier Birding Sites at 93 Locations
by Hugh Kingery
An essential guide for birders traveling in Colorado,
this
reference covers the entire state and lists summer and winter
birds by location (in the Poudre River Corridor watch
for Eastern Screech-Owl, Egrets, White-faced Ibis
and perhaps a Barrow's Goldeneye).
The state of Colorado boasts a bird list of some 482 species, ranking
it in the top 10 U.S. states for birding. Birding Colorado
includes checklists, a listing of species by habtat, and some natural
history on the state's varied landscapes along with detailed
descriptions of 93 locations and 180 birding sites.
GPS Outdoors
A Practical Guide for Outdoor Enthusiasts
by Russell Helms
Small, lightweight, and relatively inexpensive -- GPS
units are swiftly supplementing or replacing compasses as a ubiquitous
tool for outdoor travel and adventures of all kinds.
Outdoorsman Russell Helms explains how to select a GPS unit and use it
to plan, navigate and analyze journeys far and wide. A GPS log of a
trip can be converted into route maps, elevation profiles, and pinpoint
distance calculations for specific locations.
"GPS units are tough and can take random abuse, but sustained impacts
or a severe blow can disable them," Helms points out. Be
prepared: pack a compass and topo map anyway.
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