Despite what one might think from this entry, I really hate golden eagles this time of year.

Today was the second run of the standardized strutting ground count route in the desert. For once I wasn't running late, and got to my observation point overlooking the first lek well before sunup.

In fact it was still too dark to see. So the sisters got out to run while I waited.

As the darkness slowly faded I got the scope out, and focused where the grouse should be. And there were two birds.

Two large birds.

Didn't have to wait more than a minute or two to get enough light to see what they were.

Friggin' eagles. Sitting right smack dab on the lek. Naturally, not a grouse in sight.

The morning was not off to a good start.

Got to the second lek before sunrise, and counted lots of birds. And still a lot of hens attending. And then a quick race to lek number three.

As I'm barreling north ("barreling", as in excess of 60 mph) on the two track to the next lek, I cross paths with another eagle.

Not headed my way, but on a direct compass course to lek number five.

Just over a hundred cocks on the third lek. One of which, far to the north, appeared to be courting an antelope.

I'm assuming there was a hen on the ground near the antelope. But maybe not... there is a lot of uranium in our soils. But the pronghorn was not sure what to make of this walking bush.

We then barreling back south to lek number four. Best light you could hope for, and at least 11 cocks out on that sage flat. Amongst the hundreds of cows that weren't there last week.

Only got two of the three counts made on this lek. After the second count, suddenly all the grouse ducked and covered in the sage. As if they feared for their lives.

Only one thing that grouse fear like that. Eagles.

So a mad dash to lek number five. And found barely a tenth the birds it had last year, all scattered in the sage north of the lek. Yep, they'd been flushed off. Almost certainly by the eagle I saw headed this way before lek number three.

If it wasn't for the horny little hen who apparently decided that today was the day, and she wasn't going to leave, I don't think any of these cocks would have stuck around.

So, I barely got data on three of the five leks. Because of eagles. Since there were so many hens still around, I know we're no where near the peak numbers of cocks (their numbers peak about two weeks after the hens). Otherwise I would have to waste another morning trying to repeat this week's count on these leks. As it is, I'll trust to have better numbers next week.

But it was pretty much another morning wasted because of friggin' hungry eagles.