Tag Archives: sage grouse

The Continuing Story of the Forbidden Dance

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When we left the lek—the grouse were dancing joyfully and then a beautiful predator crashed the party. The dancers were hunkered down awaiting their fate. Party guests were tense watching to learn if a dancer would die……

Female Harrier flying over and checking out male Greater Sage Grouse on lek in NW Colorado. By Todd Patrick

The beautiful yet menacing hawk stretched her wings wide, tilting them to slow her flight, seeming to hover a foot from the ground. She flexed her sharp talons, brushing her lethal weapons lightly through the feathers of the largest male grouse teasing him with her power, strength and beauty.

Hawk & Grouse by Todd Patrick

The grouse seemed to shudder or was that just the breeze in his full coat of feathers?

Then, seeing nothing she wished to take, the hawk lifted her wings and soared fast and true through the big bright blue sky.

A sigh went up from the crowd. The grouse couples arose with new life and commenced to shake their tail feathers as if in triumph. Yet, the moment of peace was brief as in one corner of the dance “floor” a scuffle ensued.

Two males drunk on survival, squared off, eying each other like prize fighters. They circled one another looking for weakness. Ducking and weaving, jabbing, with a right hook here and faint there.

Male Grouse Face-Off at the Lek By Todd Patrick

The tension mounted as the insults began to fly back and forth between the two cocky birds. Such fights often ended in blood-shed. Would the grouse survive the hawk only to be lethally injured in a dance room brawl?

Male Grouse Circling before a Fight. By Todd Patrick

Find out in the final installment of….The Forbidden Dance….

“The Forbidden Dance” is an extended metaphor with blatantly anthropomorphic perspectives of some of the events experienced during the 2012 Grouse Viewing Trips as recounted by CEC’s Northwest Organizer, head grouse wrangler, and abuser of metaphors Sasha Nelson. Her professors are seriously considering confiscation of her advanced degree in animal behavior and her colleague biologists at Rocky Mountain Wild are threatening to never speak to her again. In her defense Sasha states: “I was so sleep deprived I think I was channeling my Nature Writing in the West professor who used to say – a message doesn’t have to be scientifically accurate to be understood.”

Learn more about Greater Sage Grouse and CEC’s work in Northwest Colorado by visiting us!

Party crasher at our dance!

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Male grouse compete for female attention at the "dance"

It was a breezy, but beautiful morning in Northwest Colorado. The grouse were dancing in full display. The sun had just come-up and the light was perfect for photographers taking happy snaps of the happy grouse couples on the dance “floor” when out of the clear blue sky a bold and beautiful party crasher swooped in. A russet colored female Harrier Hawk coming in low, fighting the wind, inches from the top of the crested wheat grass stubble.  The music stopped the dancers too and a hush fell over the crowd. In she swooped, brazen as, well as brazen as a hawk on the hunt.  The tension built as the invited grouse guests hunkered down. Would we see blood-shed on this bright and beautiful morning? Would the dancing end as the frightened guests scattered?

Want to know what happens next? Check back to read the next part of the forbidden dance OR come join us and see the “dance” for yourself. 

CEC, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, The Wilderness Society and our partners invite you to the “Dance”. We are pleased to offer limited seating trips to see the iconic Greater Sage Grouse mating dance.  To learn more about the tours or to purchase your ticket, click here.