Cobird readers and grouse-o-philes, As an addendum to Kay's nice note and photo exhibit, I want to draw attention to the photos she took of the flock of Greater Sage-Grouse we stumbled across one morning along County Road 34. This is south of Walden and described well in the CFO county birding website, under Jackson County, #3 "Hebron Waterfowl Area."
Seeing these 17 grouse loafing on the road for about 15 minutes and then taking flight like a task force of heavy bombers was quite a thrill! Each weighs about 4-5 pounds! At first we thought that this might be a family group, but they were all the same sex and age and too big for young of the year (on June 16). So I next thought that they must be post-breeding males, a sort of "guys hanging out at the pool hall" kind of thing. I'd like others opinions or information. Field guides describe males as having black throats and bibs," quite a contrast to these birds white throats. If these are males, they must change quite a bit as their androgens wane in early summer. I have only see Greater Sage-Grouse on spring leks, at a greater distance, DARK in the morning, and that was in the previous century, etc, so this was great fun! Come to think of it, the only things that *male* sage grouse do from June on is hang out, try not to be eaten and stay alive long enough to dance half-heartedly in the fall, then make it through the tough winters and dance "for reals" at the lek and maybe copulate if they are lucky. Then there is a lot more down time. (One of my favorite bird words, is "lek," which I was told means "playground" in some Scandinavian language). Joe Roller, Denver On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 4:26 PM, Kayleen A Niyo <k...@kayniyo.com> wrote: > A few of us went up to N Park Friday to help a bit with the RMBO > ColonyWatch counting and enjoyed a visit with a group to a Legacy Land > Trust ranch in Jackson Co. Then Mary Burger and I went into RMNP on the > west side Sun and encountered 50 mph wind and 90s. So, we got in limited > birding on Sun and Mon and headed home to 100 degree Denver!**** > > ** ** > > Enjoyed photographing a pair of Red-napped Sapsuckers taking food into a > nest hole along Hwy 125 in Grand Co. and Mountain Chickadees doing the same > in the aspen right next to the RNSA tree!**** > > ** ** > > A few photos at http://www.kayniyo.com/trip_NPark_June_12.htm**** > > ** ** > > Kay**** > > Kayleen A. Niyo, Ph.D. > Niyo Scientific Communications > Kay Niyo Photography > k...@kayniyo.com**** > > www.KayNiyo.com > ______________________________ > 5651 Garnet Street > Golden, CO 80403 > Phone: (303) 679-6646 > Fax: (866) 849-8013 **** > > ** ** > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
