COLORADO 2011: Sharp-tails on the Snow

Day 5 / April 11 – The snow covered Yampa Valley was alive this morning with the sounds of Coyotes howling and Sandhill Cranes calling. As we drove to the Sharp-tailed Grouse lek we encountered a Red Fox on the run carrying a victim, as well as a pair of Muskrats busy having their breakfast. It was a great start.

The Sharp-tails were slow to get going, preferring to wander about looking for food before making their way by flight to the large snow covered lek.

At their peak we counted 17 Sharp-tailed Grouse, with nearly all of them being paired off. They seemed very placid and not really into displaying this morning. Maybe it was because no female put in appearance? They were quite happy to lay down in the snow and face their dueling partner. Every once in a while they would get up and bow their head, spread their wings out in an arc, have their tail erect with the central feathers protruding well beyond the others, and show their golden combs and purple timpani. As they turned around, kicking up snow as they stomped their feet (below), they would produced a rattling sound with their stiff sharp-tails.

Occasionally a lone male stood by himself, no doubt waiting for a chance to show off his goods should a female enter the arena. At one stage a Red-tailed Hawk flushed a handful of them. It was not long before they flew or ran back to the lek and continued to display. Some chased each other short distances before one of them gave up.  After an hour or so the activity died down and the Sharp-tailed Grouse dispersed back to the sagebrush.

The scenic drive south from Craig took us through endless sagebrush hillsides, with the upper elevations being snow covered, before dropping down into pinyon juniper habitat as we neared Rifle. Other than a plethra of Black-billed Magpies the only bird of note was a Golden Eagle (above).

With the temperature in the 60‘s and the sun shining, our afternoon in Coal Canyon was certainly a lovely place to be. The steep canyon slopes were covered in scree and boulders with layers of different colored rocks rising hundreds of feet. Our goal to was to track down a Chukar, an introduced species in the grouse family, that has a small population in the western part of Colorado. For three hours we walked the canyon, stopping often to listen and scan, but could not find this elusive bird.

Mountain Bluebirds, Say’s Phoebes and Rock Wrens were the most conspicuous of the birds. A pair of Black-throated Sparrows (above) showed well sitting up on the sage as did a Spotted Towhee. Amongst a group of Juncos, we found a Chipping Sparrow and we were able to catch up to a very athletic Juniper Titmouse that was moving from one pinyon juniper to another at lightening speed. The canyon is part of Little Book Cliffs Horse Management area and we did see half a dozen Wild Horses grazing in the bottomlands of the adjacent canyon. Our other mammal sighting was a diminutive Hopi Chipmunk that caught Vicky’s attention as searched for Chukar.

The orchards at Palisade were pretty in pink, and white, being almost in full bloom. We came across a dozen White-crowned Sparrows and located a handful of Gambel’s Quail to end our day.