It was a point of conversation for several weeks.

What are the grouse going to do?

With an obviously delayed spring, would the strut also be delayed? All sorts of people volunteered to check leks this year, and the snow wouldn't let any of them get out to do just that.

Well, I expected the hens to arrive late. Takes a heck of a lot of energy and high protein foods to make eggs that are such a large proportion of her body mass, so I didn't expect hens to show up to be bred until after the countryside had started to green up.

And I was right. Peak hen numbers in my country was around the Ides of April, a good two weeks later than normal.

But what about the males? Will they be two weeks late, too? Will the strutting season extend well into May, giving us an opportunity to make up for all those mornings in March that were lost to deep snows?

Or will they have their own clock, irregardless of what the hens do, and shut down around the end of April as normal?

Well, quite a few of us have compared notes. (Including the UCDavis researchers who, no, are not doing their work on one of my leks. But they're close. And the stuff shown on the PBS special is a small, small part of their research.)

And it appears the cocks have their own agenda. And at the lower elevations, that means quitting the strut as normal, and leaving real early in the morning if there aren't any girls around.

So, so many leks yet to do. And only a few mornings left to do them in.

It would be nice to have my own truck back, so I could be brave enough to go far into the desert.

So I could take heelers with me. They're showing signs of cabin fever.