Sharp Tailed Grouse

[buzzsaw]

Taken in a blind up in Crex Meadows last weekend... they came in before the sun was up and bailed 45 minutes later... only one bird showed up.

[Steve Foss]

Nice! You were able to make the most of a limited situation. An excellent drumming action shot and a nice winter portrait.

[Dbl]

I agree nice.

[buzzsaw]

If I had a D3 I could have gotten ALOT more low light high ISO images... but I had to wait wait wait... fun fun fun!

Thanks guys.

[Dbl]

The brain always convincing you that that next camera would give you the shot you wanted! Just don't let the brain control your hand to reach for the wallet! It's not so much the equipment though it helps, as the guy executing the shot, which you proved here Mike!

[jwhjr]

I like how you can really see the color on the neck in the first one. It's kind of hidden in the second one. Great shots!

[Steve Foss]

Mike, what were your techs on the shot? Did you use the TC or simply the 300 f2.8?

You were just unlucky for the day, and did a nice job of getting what you did. When the sharpies are active they'll drum in good numbers well after sunrise, when ISOs can be dropped into the lower ranges with that fast glass.

Ahhh, I pulled the exif, and it looks to me like you were very patient to wait until you could get that nice shutter speed out of it. Much easier with an actual sunrise than on a cloudy day, and of course if there had been no snow there would have been no metering challenge (good job on that in the snow), since the grouse are the same basic mid tone as the grass.

Are you going back again? If the blind is close enough to the lek, I bet you'll get birds in even closer, too, especially on an active sunny day.

[JayinMN]

Nice job, atleast ones better then none!

[buzzsaw]

 Quote:

Are you going back again? If the blind is close enough to the lek, I bet you'll get birds in even closer, too, especially on an active sunny day

I'll be in the Kettle River blind on May 11th and my friend Tammy was their last weekend and she said there was normally 7 to 8 birds around with the high number of 11. So I'm VERY optimistic about that location. When these birds decide to leave, they leave fast and don't look back. I did have the 1.4x on the camera.

[mountaindew]

Mike, that's a dandy sharp shot! Really liked the first pic. As usual, you amaze me!

[finnbay]

Very nice. Hope there's still some around when I retire so that I can get into position at quiet times to get some shots.

[LeeKen]

Kettle River, Crex meadows? I thought these birds were strictly prairie and western.

Great shots!

[Steve Foss]

LeeKen, sharpies originally were distributed pretty widely across the Midwest, though they've always been a meandow/prairie bird. There were and are quite a few places in the Midwest with open space mixed with woods where they are found.

[buzzsaw]

Steve is correct. Crex meadows used to be THE place to go... but predators and Pheasants have really driven there numbers down in that area, atleast thats what the main office people there told me. I saw so many raptors when I was their and I know the Owl population is strong... they've got alot of eyes on them.

[JayinMN]

The Zim and Meadowlands area has a nice little population too. I think the main reason they do ok there is because there are no pheasants to compete with and the DNR has a couple Wildlife Management Areas set aside for them. Pheasants are very agressive gamebirds and they are also nest parasites, they will dump there eggs anywhere so they can outcompete the sharpies.

[buzzsaw]

Bingo jayin'!!

[dukhnt]

I really like that first shot buzz.

[mcary]

Hey Buzz,

I'm hitting the kettle river blind tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

[buzzsaw]

You'll be pleased! Good luck!

[mcary]

Actually, I've been there before - so I knew what I was getting. Weather was uncooperative. I had to shoot at ISO 1000 the entire time and still struggled to get reasonable shutter speeds. Make sure you have at least 600mm. I attempted to throw my 1.4 TC on the 100-400 and still would have wished for some additional length.

Good luck and I hope you have good light.

[buzzsaw]

bummer..

[jonny_redhorse]

Sweet shots Mike!...those sharptail are certainly a nice looking bird!....and you certainly captured them perfectly!....this morning I got an image of a lone sharpie sitting in a tree...

[trophyhunter]

Those are great. Love the 1st one.

[Steve Foss]

Michael, it's too bad the blind is so far from the lek. I've spent time over the years in three sharptail blinds. Two of them were so close to the birds that 200mm would have been enough. The third would only have required 300mm. As long as a person goes into the blind in the dark and waits for the birds to leave the lek before exiting the blind, the grouse are fine with a blind that close.

I wonder why that one is so far away from the action.

[mmeyer]

I'm pretty un-educated about the sharptails, cn you tell me what the lek is? Hope it's not too dumb of a question.