I just put up the last of my Greater Sage Grouse pictures from Malheur. Three of them are the chest bustingest boys you ever saw. I also wrote a note in my musings and I am going to put a paragraph of it here:

"The one thing I noticed as I was taking pictures was the awareness of the grouse. When I was there in 2002 there was another vehicle there with a 600mm lens protruding from it's window the whole time. The grouse seemed oblivious to either one of us that whole morning. This year, however, they were definitely well aware of my presence. After taking a number of pictures, the grouse had all moved farther away, so I rested and pulled the camera in and just watched. While watching I made a phone call home to assure the wife I survived the trip up there and as I was talking to her I was watching the grouse gradually come closer to the road again. When I started taking pictures again they moved farther away. In talking to a person at the Malheur NWR offices I understand there were a number of human visitors to the lek this year and that at least one of those left his vehicle and was walking around while the grouse were still present. How much longer will the grouse continue to come?"

We really need to be careful to give birds and wildlife their space. Otherwise they will always be locked away from us, and rightfully so.

http://www.pbase.com/jvhigbee/gallery/c_current

Joseph Higbee
Spanaway, Wa
mailto: jvhigbee at hotmail.com