Montana Outdoors--Lewis and Clark Fishing--From the Edge Weather Channel

Prime time for sage hen watching is NOW!

If you like me are in awe of Lewis and Clark and the incredible journey the Corps of discovery managed to pull off now...Now you can catch up on what has been called the "greatest fishin' trip EV...ER. Which I for one find hard to argue. Anyway click here to enter:  http://www.undauntedanglers.org/

For you camera nuts out there the Weather Channel's From the Edge, featuring the talented and well-traveled Peter Lik airs tonight--Thursday April 14th at 8PM ET--6 PM MT--Peter travels to Glacier NP this week.

Sage Hens Are Indeed Alive and Well After All...

(click to enlarge)

Witnessing scenes such as this, (here Annie's nailed 'em, Kate's backin' her up) are the main reason I hunt birds in general and sage hens in particular. As I have noted previously this fall sage hens, for us anyway, were tough--such that more often than not we failed to find even a single grouse. Worse in all our best spots there was little or no sign of their passing. In a typical season which runs from September 1 through November 1 the hunting starts off slow, hit or miss through much of September, then October rolls around and like flipping a switch the big grouse start to show up. Growing in numbers until the last two weeks of season it is not at all unusual to see 50 or more birds each day. Killing a limit often becomes too easy, so much so I take to shooting only when the dogs do a really good job. And then other days my heart really isn't in it. In that sort of frame of mind usually even if the dogs do good my shooting isn't so hot and...Like I said is all about the dogs anyway so what.

But with the sagebrush virtually empty all fall I fretted and fussed hoping nothing catastrophic happened. And thanks to the sage hen gods I can now report nothing did. Three weeks or so ago winter hit southwest Montana with a vengenance. Snow, bitter winds and cold (some days the high failed to top zero) and while it didn't happen overnight for the past week or so Voila! sage hens everywhere, at least everywhere they're supposed to be...Yesterday the Sisters found two bunches; one of about 12 or so and the other more like 35 or 40.

Pretty damn nifty, eh?

Good News On The Local Sage Grouse Front...

...I ran into our local wildlife biologist yesterday and as usual took the chance to quiz him a bit on the state of the local wildlife situation. First on my agenda of course were sage hens. His response was just what I wanted to hear: "They're doin' ok, more than holding their own. With what is shaping up as pretty good nesting conditions hopefully we'll see even better numbers come fall. Have you been out to the ?????? lek this spring? The other day so and so's group counted 39 males and another guy reported even more...mid 40s actually. That's pretty good. All the lek counts (males) with just a couple exceptions seem to be stable or up...not many negatives.

We then went on to discuss the seeming upturn in Hun numbers in the area. Like most agencies because Huns are introduced FWP does not officially monitor population trends. But off the record most biologists have an opinion of what's happening in their areas...especially those who are bird hunters. More good news as he felt as I do Hun numbers are on the upswing. We both marveled at their tenacity and how Huns perhaps more than any other gamebirds seem to adapt quite well to a wide variety of habitats...especially surprising to both of us is how high you sometimes find coveys. And as I've ranted many times those coveys hang out really high...like above 8000 feet apparently live up there year around...Nifty birds and then some.

More good news for REAL hunters is the newly instituted elk and mule deer rules for some of the most overrun hunting districts in the area should eventually help alleviate the thundering hoard of road warriors who of late annually descend on southwest's best districts. To hunt bulls for example now requires applying for and drawing a permit...the draw is automatic but once drawn you can only hunt bulls in that district. Same for the mule deer districts...While "it'll take time to get the word out" the thinking is eventually we will be able to alleviate the chaos of recent seasons.

A word about the photo: Due to the intense backlight created by the rising sun directly behind the bird the photo came out of camera completely blown...as shot you could barely make out there was a grouse in the photo. But thanks to Photoshop, a decent (no not great) shot is just a couple mouse clicks away. First I resized the image for web viewing. Then I opened layers, clicked on adjustment layer levels, clicked to set the black, white and gray points, tweaked it just a little more by adjusting the sliders ever so slightly, clicked to flatten the image...and Voila! what would have been a sure toss in the garbage can with film now thanks to digital and the wonders of PS the image is saved. As I said not a great shot but dramatic as hell and ahem, ahem, I for one kind of dig it...

Snow Gods Smile At Last Leave This Ol' Boy Grinnin'

When at last the snow gods conspired to blow the storm away, Bert and Jane were able to finally get out of Utah and make their way to Montana.

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.

Spring Snowstorm Puts Our Sage Hen Photo Shoot On Temporary Hold

Our friends Bert and Jane are on the way home after spending the winter writing about and photographing the desert southwest. Bert is one of the best photographers around but has never had much luck with sage hens.

So when I suggested they stop off here for a couple days and just maybe we might get lucky naturally they jumped at the chance.

Alas after leaving Zion National Park they made it as far as the Utah/Idaho before running into a massive spring storm. Having experienced blizzard conditions before on Monida Pass on the Idaho/Montana border and wanting no part of an instant replay they wisely pulled into the KOA to wait things out.

This morning they awoke to 6 inches new snow and my grim report of more to come around this neck of sagebrush later this morning. But the worst thing is we got several inches already. I've never tried to photograph sage hens on snow but if Bert ever gets here and wants to give it a go...why not?

I scouted a local lek yesterday and found plenty of dancing roosters busily courting a fair number of hens. Whether or not the group is up for posing in the snow...well, hopefully we'll be able to better answer that soon...stay tuned.

Update: Sage Grouse Listing in Limbo (AGAIN)

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced yesterday sage grouse, although warranted by biologists for protection under the Endangered Species Act, will instead be put on hold.

Allowing individual states to manage sage grouse effectively puts the heat on special interests--livestock, oil and gas, developers, wind farms, etc.-- to take whatever steps necessary to preserve and enhance sage grouse habitat (sagebrush) and the birds' welfare as well.

The move as expected brought howls of rage from both sides. The public lands resource users/extractors of course want it all--no holds barred. Ditto the environmentalists whose main agenda seems to be to toss private interests off public lands period.

While I can't prove it none of the above appears to care much one way or the other about the grouse itself.

My own take (and I'm sure the Pointer Sisters agree) is for at least the foreseeable futre we get to continue hunting sage hens. Even more important is we get to chase sage hens in the off season--good practice for the girls and a good workout for us--trust me, beats hell outta hanging out the YMCA.

Selfish, you bet, but around here sage hens are in pretty good shape and the few birds we kill each season has been proven (biologically speaking no politics even) to have zero impact on the big picture...So there you have it.