The Hunt for Prairie Grouse of the rarer type

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

I went back to the place that had Sharptail Grouse / Prairie Chicken Hybrids and I was not disappointed. There were 4 last year and luckily there were 3 this year.

 

[Catscratch]

Holy crap! How do you do it? I'm continually amazed at your pics.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

Lets see...By driving 180 miles after 2 hours sleep. Hauling in 50 lbs of gear 3/4 across a wet prairie....sleeping in my car for not the best 6 hours of sleep. Getting up at 4:45 to be out there at 5:00 am when the Grouse got there at 05:10. Waiting 1 hour for sunrise and sitting on wet soggy ground until the light was good for pictures....and then praying the grouse would cooperate....and you were in the right spot!!! It was all worth it though!

 

[Catscratch]

Lets see...By driving 180 miles after 2 hours sleep. Hauling in 50 lbs of gear 3/4 across a wet prairie....sleeping in my car for not the best 6 hours of sleep. Getting up at 4:45 to be out there at 5:00 am when the Grouse got there at 05:10. Waiting 1 hour for sunrise and sitting on wet soggy ground until the light was good for pictures....and then praying the grouse would cooperate....and you were in the right spot!!! It was all worth it though!

LOTS of hard work, but that isn't the only thing. You have a talent for it too. I've looked at a lot of wildlife pics over the yrs and yours are above and beyond the average "good pics".

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

Well if it you put it that way...it does sound better!

 

[pointer]

These are great images!! I didn't realize the chicken and sharptail would hybridize. Way cool to document that! In a former job, one of the "rites of spring" was getting to count sagegrouse on leks in the spring. I miss doing that.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

We got prairie chicken licensees for that zone so hopefully we can cross paths with one or two of the hybrids. Would be awesome to have one mounted.

 

[pointer]

Yes it would! A huge regret of mine is having 2 lesser prairie chickens in the freezer and not scraping the money together to get them mounted before they got freezer burnt. Now they can't be hunted...

Good luck with the hunt!

 

[TMIL]

Wow, amazing pics!!

 

[j-bird]

Steve the images you share with us are always just so awesome. The level of detail you manage to capture and the clarity is just amazing.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I have no idea about the technicalities of getting shots like you post, but WOW - the pix are incredible !! Thanks for posting them. Every one I've looked at the last several years is 5 stars !!