One of the main reasons that I went out west this spring was to photograph the endangered Greater Sage Grouse. In mid-April, the males gather on leks to dance and call in the hopes of attracting females to mate with.
I want to say a special thanks to Ron Laird, an excellent photographer and great naturalist, who not only gave me a place to stay, right on the ranch where I photographed these grouse. He also took time out of his busy day to share some of his own work with me and show me many of the other places to photograph in the area. Thanks again, Ron.
Here is a series of shots showing the male calling. I checked the time stamp in the metadata for these images and the span of time between the first shot in the series and the last is less than a second (my camera takes 8 frames per second). So this action is happening very quickly.
These next couple images are a little different, the first is shot back lit, with the sun at a low angle coming from behind the bird. The last image was one of my personal favorites from the trip I really liked the background of this picture to me it really has a sense of place.
Good Luck & Good Light!
Steve & Nicole