There's five, count 'em, five frickin' gates between leks number one and two today.

I hate gates. Especially ones that have been jerry-rigged to close with a half-mile of mish-mash pieces of wire. Got a two-inch scrape down the back of my right hand from one of those.

Helps to have heelers in the truck for that, though. No dripping blood in the truck, and sanitizing saliva is soon gently applied.

So... no grouse on the first strutting ground. Disappointing. Been empty the last few times I've visited over the past few years, but I was always too late in the morning, or too late in the season.

Got there before sunup today. Still no birds.

None on lek number two, either, but it's been empty for a long time. Appears as though the grouse shifted to lek number three, less than a mile away. But that had only five cocks on it this morning.

Nothing on lek five, either. A strutting ground first reported around 1978 and 1979, and then never seen again. Until I found a couple birds strutting on a nearby ridge in recent years. But nobody today.

After all the depressing news, there was lek number six. Fifty-seven cocks. Highest count since... ohhh... okay. I just checked the records. Since like forever. Highest count ever. Seven more than folks found there last year, which was a record high.

After that, lek seven was empty, as expected since those grouse shifted to lek eight. By now we're almost two hours after sunrise. We pass over a feather pile (all that remains of a grouse eaten by an eagle), and while I'm monkeying with the GPS to save that location, I notice I've just driven right up onto lek eight.

As in, there's a grouse strutting on my left, and a really pissed off looking grouse on my right.

Who soon went stomping off into the sagebrush, grumbling to himself.

It was minutes later, when I was preparing to move on to lek nine (empty, too late in the morning) that I saw why he was so grumpy.

Not only had I interrupted his last struts of the morning, but I had managed to park myself right between him and his only remaining competitor.

His only remaining competitor, and the only remaining hen.

Ooops. Sorry.