Day: May 9, 2025

In the spring, on large grassy meadows called leks, male Sharp-tailed Grouse drum their feet, flare their wings, and spin in an incredible display as they vie for the attention of female Sharp-tailed Grouse. Some Native American tribes living on the Plains where this ritual occurs modeled some of their dances on this bird’s spring-time mating ritual. I had witnessed this remarkable sight in Nebraska from blinds we entered well before sunrise to await the early morning spectacle. In Custer State Park, we had been hearing their gobbling and clucking vocalizations as well as their foot drumming sounds each morning in the area where we shot sunrise. We could barely see the birds on the lek in the pre-dawn darkness. But, on our last morning in the park, I was stunned to watch a male Sharp-tailed Grouse as he performed his dance a few feet in front of me at eye level with the just-risen sun backlighting him. Shooting from the front passenger seat, I had the best seat in the house.

After dinner late yesterday afternoon, about 90 minutes before sunset, we made a drive around the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park to say our final farewells. The light was perfect as we paused alongside one Prairie Dog Town. This “town crier” was on the alert, watching and calling out a constant alarm chirp. I had hoped to photograph a Prairie Dog wave, as this one was poised and ready to stretch up his arms and body in an infectious gesture that often reverberates throughout a town with several mimicking the first. That did not happen but his pose was another classic Prairie Dog pose—like a furry Buddha.