We had 11 leks to count this season. Each of them required 4 rounds of counts. We woke up at around 3:30 in the morning to drive about an hour to the displaying grounds before sunrise to survey for sage-grouse. It is one of the best way to estimate population size since most birds visit these areas during the breeding season. It was a surreal experience seeing so many birds on the lek, I had previously worked with APCs and there were not nearly as many prairie chicken males booming. I counted 46 males one morning at the Rock Springs Wash lek. I always enjoyed seeing and the birds do their unique displays from the work truck and then hiking in and scaring them up to get a flush count. After almost 2 months we just finished our last surveys last Saturday. It's gonna be good to sleep in.
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| Can y'all count all of the males? |
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| Flushing males |
so jealous! very few people have the chance to see what you get to see. soak it all in before you have to return!
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