The morning started well, and just seemed to get better.

Today was the second running of the standard lek route for the Ferris country, and the heeler sisters and I were on the first strutting ground before sunup.

Counted 50 cocks and 35 hens doing their thing, and then quickly hustled to the second lek (of six on the route). Ideally, I like to be on the second strutting ground by sunrise, but missed that by just a few minutes today, with the sun peeking out over Junk Hill:

Thirty-nine cocks on the second lek, and none on the third. (This is no surprise or cause for alarm. The birds have, in the past five to six years, moved themselves from the third lek to the second. But I still have to check the third, just to be sure.)

The first thing I saw at lek #4 was a coyote, staring wistfully at all the chicken breakfasts that he could not reach. The grouse completely ignored the canid, who panicked and ran as we came over the rise. Fifty-one cocks on that lek. Have to skirt around that lek to get to #5 and, as usual I missed the faint road that runs up to my observation point above the fifth. (Hard to see those paths in the sage when the sun is directly in your eyes.) So just bushwhacked up the ridge.

Eighteen cocks and 11 hens. But it's getting late, and the hens are leaving.

Have to circle back past lek #4 to get to #6, and the light is absolutely perfect for taking a peek at another lek, not on the route, a couple miles to the west. Nobody there, but no surprise. Been abandoned for a lot of years. (Would you strut where there is a major powerline (i.e. eagle perches) just a half mile to the east? I don't think so.)

Heeler sisters finally get a break when I open the gate to get to lek #6. But it's a short run, then they're loaded and we're truckin' again.

Counted 59 cocks on this lek, most of them by their halos. It's now only an hour and a quarter after sunrise, calm (no good for eagles), and birds are still strutting. I try hustling through the dunes to another lek (the eighth for the morning).

It's seven miles to this lek, probably late enough to be an exercise in futility, and Weasel Crossing (yes, there's a story there) is usually impassable this early in the spring. So I took the time to snap some shots of the south side of the Ferrises, including Ferris Peak:

But, surprise of surprises, Weasel Crossing is half dry and half frozen. No sweat.

And the grouse are still strutting on Ferris lek:

Three hens that just had to check out the action this morning were still on the lek. So naturally half the cocks stuck around to show off (the other half were down on the meadow below, getting water, food, and trying to impress each other).

No other strutting ground close enough to try to check, so we stayed there 20 minutes, just watching the birds. Then back across Weasel Crossing and homeward bound.

Gave the sisters a longer running break in the old ghost town of Ferris, half of which you see here:

And one last stop by one of the ponds in the sanddunes:

All in all, a good morning.