This morning was probably the best sunrise all season. Peaked right after the first strutting ground, and before the second.

And you missed it.

Ripples of orange and red, spanning all the way from Green Mountain in the northwest to Elk Mountain in the southeast. Almost half the sky was glowing embers.

Nice finale to the moonset, which happened about 15 minutes earlier. A large golden orb, slightly dented on the upper left. Beautifully backlit the towers on the Divide as we headed north.

No pics, of course.

I suppose I give the impression that I spend a lot of mornings watching the earth's terminator spin underneath the sun. I don't. Usually too busy. Too much of a hurry to get somewhere. This is what I see of most sunrises:

The masked heeler sitting quietly, patiently at my elbow. Either catching up on her sleep, or attentively watching the road roll by. Her maskless sister instead pacing endlessly on the other half of the seat, pressing her face against the windshield. Hoping for that occasional spotting of a coyote, or a rabbie.

And this

is what the windshield looks like when she is done.

The nearly full moon is wreaking havoc with the counts. Birds are obviously strutting most of the night, and already walking off the leks at sunrise. More watching for heads bobbing in the sagebrush than simple counting of tailfans and white breasts.

Also had a vehicle again, on the second lek. This is just off the paved road, and a popular spot for grouse watchers. But this was a government rig again, probably the same guy as last week. And again he had a guest, someone to show the birds to.

Not so bad, except he insisted on getting as close to the birds as possible. I came in behind them, without them knowing, and got a count of 46 cocks before he got close to the lek and parked. By the time he got to his idyllic spot, there were less than 40 grouse strutting.

The rest had nervously wandered off to the sage. And there was one cock hiding in the sage between his rig and mine, a bird he had driven past. Don't mind folks coming out to see the birds, even at taxpayer expense, but do they have to get in amongst them?