Colorado “Chicken Odyssey” – Gunnison Sage-Grouse

It is 5:11am on a calm 23 degree morning in the Gunnison basin of south west Colorado and the window to the trailer that acts as our blind has just been opened. We are at the Waunita Hot Springs Lek waiting to get our first glimpse of Gunnison Sage-Grouse. This is the only official state viewing site for the isolated population in the Gunnison Basin that was split from the larger Greater Sage-Grouse.

There is a full moon and the planet Venus is in view. In front of us we can hear a babbling brook and barely make out a large open short grassland dotted with willows and patches of sage. The running water makes it tough to hear any popping sound that the sage-grouse produce, when they inflate their two frontal air-sacs as they display. This is because the birds are over 200 yards away. A Vesper Sparrow sings followed by a Song Sparrow, American Robins and the ever-present Horned Larks.

By 6am we can make out that dark objects are moving about in the distance. As it gets lighter we count at least 20 birds spread out over a wide area, with several noticeable concentrations of activity. With binoculars and scopes trained on the Gunnison Sage-Grouse (above) we even see a copulation. The lek is busy and these large birds are pretty aggressive running towards each other though there is little contact. When displaying, the head flicks three times and the long dark filoplumes come over the crown of the head, this being the most obvious distinction at this distance between Gunnison’s and Greater Sage-Grouse. There is even a slight tail shake to finish.

Half an hour later a pair of Coyotes show up several hundred yards away, which gets the attention of the grouse as they come closer. The canines mark their territory over a wide area, urinating and scrapping their feet, before moving off in the opposite direction. The lek returns to normal , though gradually over the next hour females and some males lose interest and fly away into the thick sage brush. At 7:35am a Common Raven flushed the final two males, and we were able to leave.

The first visit which was only three days earlier was slightly different in that there were twice as many birds, about 25 males and 21 females, but the lek was further back. We did get to see three copulations before a Northern Harrier flushed a dozen females around sunrise – 6:40am. Gradually groups of two or three birds would leave. A Golden Eagle flew onto the far slope, but was more preoccupied with looking for a rodent than the birds. Though one never knows how long the chickens will stay on the lek, we have to stay till “Elvis has left the lek”. There is always one! In this case he finally took off at 7:48am. A round of applause ripples through the trailer. We have been up for almost four hours and everyone is keen to get to breakfast.

Next….Blue Mesa to Grand Junction