"Dancing at Dawn" A Collection of Sharp-tailed Grouse

The Sharp-tailed Grouse is one bird I have never observed close up. In past years, I have seen them from a distance of at least a hundred yards, as they rocketed away from me into the horizon line.

Monday I went on a two hour junket to an area to try to find the sharpies "dancing."

A photographer friend and I arrived at the lek area around a half hour before sunrise. The area was in a hay field surrounded by forest... and about a quarter mile hike to the center of the lek. We could see the silhouettes of the sharpies against the pre dawn sky. As we walked, the sharpies took off and my friend told me they would return after we set up our two blinds. "This was most certainly true," as minutes after I got my camera out of my case, they landed and ran towards our blinds. If the wind wasn't blowing so hard, we would have gotten even better close ups... as they were a bit leery of the blind noise because of the wind. At any rate, in the dusk of dawn, I had a couple sharpies almost in my blind. They were so close my 300 prime lens was out of focus.

The temperature was in the low twenties and the windchill was miserable... but here are a few shots of the escapade... I thought the early morning light was & became became quite interesting...

A shot of the sharpie & frost before the sunrise.

You never cease to amaze Dave, excellent shots. Sorry to hear about the weather up there, frost and wind chill. That must have been thrilling when they were running at you, thats cool.
Well done my friend........still waiting on that book to come out.

nice set, looks like frost on the grass in 1. great capture to get one doing that little dance

I would call this a pretty spectacular set of images, Dave. Wow, what beautiful shots and how special to have witnessed their dance from such a close distance. Plus this set is a lesson in light. Wow again.

I'm glad you got to get up close and personal with them, Dave; between their noises and their antics, they are quite the spectacle, aren't they. Good job.
Al

Stunning bird,and well captured.

A terific series here ...love the pov and light in these images...Very nicely done.

Great job Dave. The effort and time you put into these really shows. #4 is my pick of the litter. The light is fabulous and the subjects are interesting and the end result is right there for the eyes to see. Again Very well done!

Dave, having never seen one of these at all, you series is even more special. You continue to raise the bar on habitat photography. I like them all and the third and last are especially fine.

Fascinating story Dave, and even better captures of a bird I've only seen in pictures.
It looks like you were right on the ground w/them.....brrrrr! The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th images are just fantastic showing the courtship rituals, but the last is my favorite as a classically posed Sharpy image.
Easy for me to say that I'm glad it was you freezing and not me, but I sure do enjoy the rewards of your efforts. Great work!

What a stunning series you caught there Dave. Great to see things like that. Well done in capturing it so well.

BGgraphy wrote in post #14180293
You never cease to amaze Dave, excellent shots. Sorry to hear about the weather up there, frost and wind chill. That must have been thrilling when they were running at you, thats cool.
Well done my friend........still waiting on that book to come out.

Thank you my friend... great day in the field, a first for me getting that close... snowed two inches last night and my Ruffed Grouse friends started "drumming" this week... a couple weeks early.

Wow, what a wonderful Sharpie series Dave! Love every single of them. I would kill to have an opportunity like this. Well done!

A fun bird to photograph. You did well.

great set Dave.