Dizzy dances at dawn

On a very cold morning in early April  the prairie chickens were busy sparing on the lek at Blue Stem Prairie SNA. One bird kept going in circles in front of the blind andbecame the subject of this short video. Later I checked the MN Prairie Chicken Society FB page learning it has been named "Dizzy" and has been seen on the lek for three years.

The Fight

This battle lasted most of the morning with intermittent breaks for rest and recovery. Only when the hen from the previous post arrived did the attention of these males turn away from fighting. I would have loved to captured this in slow motion but was afraid to switch cameras and miss the action. The light was also a little low for the higher shutter speed needed to record slow motion ( 1/250 vs 1/60).

Courting the Lady

This frenzy of activity took place on the lek last weekend. The first two hours were spent keeping warm, watching males dance, and then stare at each other. The next hour flew by with this nonstop activity.  I hope this will entice you to visit the blind in the future.

Technical: Recorded one morning using a Canon C100 and Sony a7r2 with a 100-400 lens and Rode Videomic.

Storm at the Lek

The blind was reserved 2 months ago, the weather is miserable, and the forecast is for 2-6 inches of snow. Now what? There really wasn't a question of whether to show up or not since the birds would still be there. It was also no problem deciding what to wear - everything! The result was a unique experience to witness how prairie chickens survive on the prairie under some very harsh conditions.

Diary of an Image

This image has an interesting history.
2002 - first year of sitting in a blind to get sharp-tails on the lek, no usable images
2003-2005 - at least two days per year, 3 hours per day. no usable images.
2006 - best year for activity on lek. this image along with several fight shots recorded
2006 - image scanned and donated for use in wildlife education
2012 - request for use, fee negotiated
2013 - publication

Several lessons were learned from this image.

• I'm glad I kept my day job, the use fee will buy a tank of gas and lunch at McDonald's
• Donation made it possible for a PR agency to view the image
• A simple image may not be simple to obtain
• To clone the blade of grass or not: I left the grass as is opting for a photojournalist approach.
• The best part of this image is the memory of the morning it was taken.