Sharp-tailed grouse watching expedition

This morning, John and I got up at 4 a.m. to drive over to a farm field located in the middle of nowhere (somewhere between Aitkin and McGregor) to watch the annual sharp-tailed grouse mating ritual. The grouse come to the same lek for several weeks every spring, where the DNR has set up a couple of blinds that people can reserve to watch the mating ritual. We were there by ~5:45, a half hour before sunrise, but some of the grouse had already assembled and we startled them away as we walked to the blind. They came back, though, and it had to be one of the funniest, craziest things I've ever seen. At any one time in the lek (smaller than the size of a softball infield), there was about 17 males and a couple of female sharp-tailed grouse, which were all about the size of a chicken. Many more females hid out in the longer grass around the edges of the lek, where occasionally a male would see one and dance after it.

Otherwise, the males danced around in this funny way that reminded me of wind-up toys. Every few seconds they froze in unison, sometimes face to face with another bird, and at some signal known only to them, would then begin dancing in unison again, strutting around and making clucking noises. The males were really beautiful...they had a yellow crest on their head, and a big purple patch on their throats that would stick out as they clucked. It was amazing all the vocalizations they could make, including clucks, gobbles, and chirps.

We took a bunch of video and photos, none that really capture the frenetic nature of the scene. We watched for about 1.5 hours without getting bored, although I did get sore from sitting on a bucket. John and I never did figure out how they make the "trrrrrrr" noise while they danced (sounds like a small motor...hopefully you can get a sense from the video), but maybe from pounding the ground really quickly with their feet, or grinding their tail feathers together somehow?

They are good-looking birds, don't you think?

There were also some fierce head to head competitions with lots of feathers flying

I understand now why they are called "sharp-tailed" grouse, since they have one long feather that sticks out of their tail

This video is a bit dark (we took it when we first arrived before the sun had risen fully) but it gives you a sense of all the grouse running around everywhere

This was a weak head-to-head competition, but the only one we captured on the camera

I don't know why the screen appears blank, but this video still should work