Sharp-tailed grouse starting to display

I was asked to check some historical Columbia Sharp-tailed grouse leks to see it they were still active.  It has been five years or more that these leks have been officially documented as being active.  In two days of searching I have found two active ones and several that had grouse near them but I did not see any displaying on them.  Yesterday morning I checked one on private ground and it had 41 sharpies on it.  It had snowed the night before up high where they were.  Here a male walks up to my truck to see what the strange thing was where he wanted to be.

 

He stopped and looked at my camera lens - just a big eye - looking at him.

 

Then he put on a show, displaying his dance moves which I thought was better than watching "Dancing with the Stars"

 

A hen ran through the lek, and the males decided to fight over her even though she was gone and uninterested in romance in the cold and wet.  And also probably too early in the season.

 

A beautifully colored male with large yellow eyebrows decided he would walk under the truck but paused long enough for this picture.

 

Then two courting Northern Harriers came by the lek and all the grouse left in a hurry.

 

Just another morning spent watching, recording and enjoying the wilds of Idaho.