Last Tuesday morning was a rerun of the standard lek route in the desert that I had tried to run in the snow on Sunday.

Got out of town on time, at 05:23, and was waiting to count the first strutting ground well before sunrise.

Twenty-three cocks. Not much different than what I saw two mornings ago, just before the storm clouds settled in.

We were on our way to the second lek before sunrise, and found 35 cocks on that one. The third, largest strutting ground had 94 grouse strutting.

The wind was clearly discouraging the grouse on all the leks so far, and only two were seen on lek four, hunkered down close to the protection of sagebrush. My hopes were not high as the heelers and I sped off to the fifth and last lek. But, after passing the apparently abandoned Texas Wagoneer that wasn't there Sunday, I was pleased to find 32 roosters still strutting on lek five.

And one hen.

It was too late to try running off to any other leks, so I slowly drove down to this lek itself, on the site of a gas well that failed to find gas. And parked to watch grouse strut.

The lone hen was still there, circling one male at the core of the strutting ground. Clearly she wanted to be bred, and at 07:39 this alpha cock obliged her.

You can barely see her tail sticking out, under his.

Copulation was brief, as is normal for sage grouse (and most birds). And normally, the hen would then skedaddle off into the sagebrush for cover, her breeding duties done for the year.

But this gal stuck around. Circling the alpha cock some more for several minutes.

Until she dropped herself down in front of him again, wings raised to the side, making it perfectly clear what she wanted.

Again.

And at 07:44, he obliged.

Again.

Now, in a quarter-century of watching sage grouse strut, I have never seen that before. I assume it is possible that there are hens out there all the time asking for seconds, but I haven't noticed it. Nor heard anyone else report seeing it. As I said, the normal reaction of a hen to being bred, besides the "ewww-ick!" maneuver, is to immediately run off to safety.

After her second sampling of the alpha cock's wares, the little hen meandered off, weaving in amongst the other males strutting on the lek.

And then came back.

Now by this time, you gotta figure either this male grouse is awfully good and irresistable or...

He's no good at all and she's still not satisfied.

But at 08:01, the same cock hopped up on top of this little hen, and pumped her for the third time. And for the third time, she squirted out like a watermelon seed, and shook herself through the "ewww-ick!" maneuver.

This time it looked like he got the deed done, and the hen quickly moved up the open slope to the north, to the edge of the sage.

Then, after a short pause, this horny little hen turned around, and ran back onto the center of the lek.

And hovered around the master cock, once again. This she did for over twenty minutes. She got close to being bred again, but suddenly darted out like a lizard and hid by a sagebrush plant no bigger than herself. Every other grouse on the strutting ground, except her beau, ducked down and pretended to be sagebrush plants. An eagle or raptor passing by on a far horizon that I could not see, I guess. That happened once again in the next twenty minutes, although that time I think they were ducking from clouds. Finally, a dozen roosters had had enough, and took off to find breakfast.

Leaving just four strutting cocks.

And the little horny hen.

Two hours and 15 minutes after sunrise, at 08:37, the master cock mounted the little hen for a fourth time. (That I could count. Who knows how many times she was serviced before I got there?) And that was that. Whether finally satisfied, or just unwilling to risk dying for another turn, I do not know. But by 08:44, the little sage grouse slut had left the lek.

And so did we.