As planned early next morning found Bert and me huddled in a hastily erected photo blind at the edge of a sage grouse breeding ground, aka dancing ground or lek.
Because of the seemingly endless unsettled weather pattern than had been plaguing southwest Montana since mid March I had grave doubts the weather gods would cooperate this morning. But my fears proved unfounded as the day dawned cold and clear, perfect actually for what we had in mind.
At least a dozen roosters were engaged in their spectacular dance even as I set the blind up. Again Lady Luck was on our side as sometimes setting the blind at dawn spooks the birds which then usually return but it takes awhile...Not this time however as the dancing cocks simply moved off a short ways and we were soon able to start shooting. As the sun came up the strong backlight proved a slight problem but only for a few minutes. As there were enough targets to aim our long telephoto lenses slightly left or right of the rising sun and keep shooting.
I suppose it might have been better somehow but I really can't think just how. Anyway thanks to our large capacity digital cards we both shot several hundred frames before the dance crowd started to leave around 9 a.m. And while I can't speak for Bert, trust me this ol' boy was sure grinnin'...
I'm sure upon reaching home Bert will post some of his shots on his blog as soon as he gets time. Check out the Links to the left...that would be Gildart Photo and click on Weblog.
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