(Lander, WY) – I made it out to my favorite Sage Grouse Lek Friday morning before sunrise to photograph over 100 Greater Sage Grouse dance, fight, and mate, marking springtime in hill country.
For us humans, a lek in the spring is a calming, serene experience in the silence of sunrise, about as far away from civilization as you can get. I’ll keep it PG, but for the grouse I imagine the experience is as close to the center of the universe as they get all year long… Think of Wyoming’s own version of Saturday Night Fever and the DJ’s spinning a little bit of James Brown’s It’s A Man’s World.
It’s easy to imagine generations of these birds coming back to this exact lek year after year for thousands of years to dance their sacred dance. This is one of my favorite parts of living in this state.
A greater sage grouse shows its feathers early in the morning near Lander. h/t Carl Cote Two greater sage grouse fight at a lek near Lander. Greater sage grouse brawl at the lek, kicking up dust in the early morning sunlight. 
Sunlight shines through the feathers of a greater sage grouse at dawn. Wind River Peak sits amongst the early morning clouds south of Hudson. A pronghorn walks across the sage brush east of Hudson. h/t Carl Cote
