Search for Grouse

March 7, 2007

Bryan Ehlmann and I were at the Timberlake Greater Sage-Grouse Lek before sunrise. Before stopping at the lek, we drove the first 3 miles of Moffat County Road 3. Two female Greater Sage-Grouse crossed the road during our drive! Once back at the lek, we saw 6-8 males displaying. As far as we could tell, no females were among them.

Afterwards, we drove over to Oxbow Wildlife Area. We heard that Sage Sparrows had been reported further south along Highway 139 near the Garfield and Rio Blanco County line. Maybe they had reached Moffat County also? None were found; birds were pretty scarce.

A check of Routt County Road 80 proved what we thought, that there was too much snow to get to the leks up there.

We ended our birding day at the 20 mile Sharp-tailed Grouse Lek outside of Hayden. Just before it was too dark to see, a Sharp-tailed Grouse flew from the east side of the road toward the leks on the west side of the road.