Those of you who know, know that if the sun is this high when I get where I'm going,

I'm probably late.

But I will blame it all on it taking twice as long to get ready when using only one hand, rather than sleeping in too late.

And I wasn't too late. The grouse were there.

Doing their spring ritual.

They've been out courting for weeks, obviously. But this was the first morning I could get out to check on them.

Their predators were out, too.

Looking for breakfast.

Strutting season has come late this year. Late for me, that is. Not for the grouse. In fact, we came upon a strutting male, with 16 hens gathered around, less than an hour after I broke my wrist last week.

But with elk dying, checking strutting grounds was set aside as less important work.

Not to mention, without a snowmachine, you couldn't really get anywhere until this week. And even today, the winter's snow really limited where I could go.

The winter's snow, and the spring's mud.

Either way, it was nice to have a change of season.