May 2
Connor and I travelled to Wainwright yesterday to see the Sharp-tailed Grouse lek. We met our good friend, Sheldon, at the Canadian Tire parking lot at 4:45 and and were on the lek by 5:30 am.
What’s a lek? Wiki says “A lek is an aggregation of male animals gathered to engage in competitive displays and courtship rituals, known as lekking, to entice visiting females which are surveying prospective partners to mate with.”
In this case about 10 sharp-tailed grouse males were on this site posturing and positioning for the best spot on the dance floor. When a female would arrive to check them out, they would dance around in a circle with their wings flared out and feet drumming the ground. It is an amazing spectacle to watch. They gather at sunrise and you need to be in the blinds before sunrise. We stayed in the blinds until 8:30 am when they all left.
The best time for photos is as the sun peaks over the horizon. We were fortunate that there was a small band of clear sky on the eastern horizon. We had about ten minutes of beautiful light before the sun went behind the clouds.
Stay well !
