There are signs that grouse are emerging from their stupor. Numbers at Chugwater seem to be relatively stable (low to mid-20’s), and a couple of stops at Preacher Lek have yielded 9 or 10, which is about what we were getting last year. Monument is finally picking up somewhat- we had 11 males yesterday, including a female who stayed for a few minutes to check out the handful of guys staking out territories on the main lek area. She certainly seems to be getting an eyeful in the photo above!

Yesterday was my first time sitting on a lek this season. It ended up being a great day on on Monument, although a little windy. The main set of males were active well after sunrise, but were not too late in their departure either. There are always conflicting interests as the morning drags on- more time on the lek means more data, but, since we can’t escape the blind until the last bird leaves, long mornings means some of the niceties (e.g. bathroom and second breakfast) are also put on hold.

I made my first visit to Preacher lek today. The birds were flushed by an eagle relatively early (~7:30), so I didn’t get too many photos of the sage-grouse on the lek. Some other shots from the morning, including a pre-dawn eagle that made the males hunker down



and some shots of some of the ungulates against the backdrop of the Wind River Range.





Dan and I had to run into Lander to retrieve some packages. Also, we had heard from Sue that our storage shed at the BLM had toppled over in the recent wind! Luckily not much in there, and it ended up not being too bad to re-assemble.



We also stopped by the NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) equipment corner. Kevin VERY GENEROUSLY donated several old climbing ropes to our drop-net project. THANKS KEVIN!