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spring snow It was dark when I left home. Alone. The heeler sisters having once again decided a warm bed with their Alpha was preferable to a cold truck. But I wasn't the only one up this early. The loca;l diner was already busy...
As was the highway heading north.
The snow the weather folks had predicted for us had not appeared. But by the time I got to the first strutting ground, on this the first run of my dunes route, the promised spring storms were hovering in the background.
A hawk flushed off a nearby tree, the only tree for miles around, pretty much ruined my morning. Over 80 grouse were flushing off the second lek as I pulled up, leaving 20-some cocks and a handful of hens strutting on the meadow.
The route was already a waste of time now, but I might as well check out the other three leks. But that was easier said than done, with drifts of crusted snow forcing me to divert out into the sage to continue south. The third lek had less than a dozen cocks strutting. And the clouds of snow were beginning to settle down. By the fourth lek, it was seriously snowing. And nobody likes frostbit air sacs, so these grouse were wandering off into the sage. Leaving one lone male on the lek, looking around like a hopeful Charlie Brown.
"Cmon back! It'll clear!" It didn't.
No point in fighting the old snowdrifts to the last lek of the route. I turned back. Enjoying the now slick highway all the way home.
Tomorrow is supposed to be worse. |
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