It was overcast to the east. Didn't look like there would be much of a sunrise. But as we rolled north along the two-track road towards the first strutting ground of the morning, I discovered I was wrong.

A blood-red glow on the bottoms of the clouds. Appropriate, perhaps, for the events of the day.

A hard right turn, and we were soon parked at the spot overlooking the first of five leks. It appears that hen numbers have peaked, and are starting to drop, so it's time to start the standardized count routes. Today we were running the desert route, and tomorrow, weather permitting, we'll be in the dunes.

It was too dark to see the lek, much less count grouse, so as the heelers went out for their first drag race and pee break, I watched the red quickly fade from the clouds. Too soon it was light, the brief colour of sunrise over.

Time to get to work.

Twenty-three cocks, and seven hens. Not a particularly high count for this ground but not low, either. Then it was a mad dash to the second lek, the sun technically rising as we were mid-way there. Once parked, I counted 51 cocks. Not a record high, but the season is early yet.

The third lek, the largest in my part of the world, had 121 cocks scattered about across a broad valley in the sage. And more hens than I could count, but at least 83. Making three separate counts of birds spread out on three separate strutting centers takes precious time, and it was twenty minutes before we could take off for lek number four.

Here again I count the lek from a high point, over a mile away. If you park in exactly the right spot, which is easy to find since my frequent use has made a small clear spot in the sage, you just line your spotting scope up with the circular corral far in the distance and the grouse should be half-way between you and the corral. That's what it looks like, anyway. In reality the corrals are almost four miles beyond the lek.

Since the grouse are over a mile away, the heeler sisters get to get out and run for a second time while I count. I'm surprised to find 30 males out there strutting in the sage. It's been twenty years since this strutting ground had so many males.

Then a race to the fifth and final lek of the morning. Where I find 52 cocks and three hens still out doing their courtship thing.

Grand total = 277 cocks. This is the eighth year I've run this route, and that nearly ties the record of 279 set in 2001. Last year on this first run I found only 173 males. And we've got at least a month of strutting season to go.

An increase due to the moisture we finally got last year. Amazing what a little rain can do.

Before heading home, I park in the sandy road and stow away the sleeping bags and coats (used to smooth the ridges in the bench seat) from Thursday night. A task I forgot about until well after dark on Friday. The heelers, however, were quite happy with the situation, the little maskless one settling into the nylon sleeping bag on the seat as we drove out this morning, and her sister enjoying the lumps of the heavier cloth bag in the back.

She was visibly disappointed to climb in the back on the drive home, finding everything neat and even again.

But while I stuffed, folded and stowed bags, vests and coats, the sisters got to enjoy their favorite pastime.

And then home. To lay in bed with the wife, reading the Saturday papers.