Lek trafived!

[buglinbilly]

I got up at 3:30 this morning and walked my dogs and then jumped in my truck about 5:00 and headed up to a Sage Grouse Lek.

For those of you who don't know what a Lek is, its a place the Sage Grouse go to each year to strut and do their mating ritual.

I was really a little late in the year to get the best photos, but I still got a pretty good ones.

I used my new Lens (Zukio 50-200) for the first time. I also took most of the photos with my E-5, but a few were taken with my E-3.

The grouse are there as it lightens and stay until about 8:00 AM and then all of a sudden they fly away. So most of the time the light is poor, but the show they put on is great.

Here's a few of the photos I took this morning and a few of their many poses.

I started out with a flash and soon shut it off.









































It's been a couple years since I have been up there, and it sure was fun.

Have a good one. BB

[paulnj]

Very nice! I would suggest getting prone with the camera at thier eye level for the WOW factor.

[mjs1973]

Very nice! I just got back from a trip with another photographer from this forum to try to photograph sharptailed grouse. The light/weather wasn't very good for us. Looks like you had much better luck than we did. A few of those first images look like flash was used. If so, did the flash seem to bother the birds at all?

[buglinbilly]

Yes, I used a flash early in the morning before it lightened enough to just shoot without it.

And no flash seems to affect very few animals or birds. The one big exception I have found is that of the pronghorn antelope. They seem to spook at anything they see, as their main source of protection is their eyes and their speed.

I was pretty lucky to have the birds come as close to me as I did. They accept the flash and shutter noise without an alarm, but if you start moving around they will fly when they are that close to you.

I was born and raised in Wyoming and when I was a young kid there were tons of sage grouse around, but their numbers have really fallen off through the years. I knew of many Leks when I was young, but most are now history nowadays.

I have bowhunted for over 50 years and I have come to learn that photographing wildlife is much like bowhunting----------most days you go home skunked!

Here are a few more of the images I took with a flash.











Have a good one. BB

[armando_m]

very productive sessions ! nice images

they certainly look impressive with their chests inflated like that

bowhunting ... hmm.. yes I always thought I was hunting when trying to photograph creatures in the wild