BLANE KLEMEK OUTDOORS: March marks lekking season for sharp-tailed grouse

Old Man Winter is wearing out his welcome, but to dancing sharp-tailed grouse, it doesn’t matter.

Indeed, one of nature’s most remarkable annual events is occurring once again on open-brushland landscapes across areas of northwest Minnesota.

Gathering each spring on traditional leks, or dancing grounds, male sharp-tailed grouse, or “sharp-tails” as they’re often called, perform courtship rituals by dancing and vocalizing to attract mates.

The word “lek” is derived from the Swedish lek, which is a word that loosely describes “play."

“Lekking," however, is a competition between males vying for dominance and position on the lek.

Fights and chasing are common between male sharp-tailed grouse during the mating season. Early on, usually by mid to late March here in Minnesota, several males begin assembling on traditional, sometimes new, leks in order to establish a hierarchy amongst themselves.

When these hierarchies are determined, a dominant male bird, or birds, will occupy the approximate center of the lek.

Lesser males — birds without position or those aspiring to gain positions within a lek — are relegated to the perimeters, or outskirts, which is not the place to be when you’re a courting male sharptail trying to impress prospective mates.

Lekking male sharp-tailed grouse are continuously jockeying for position with each other as they battle and intimidate one another.

Classic stare-downs between two seemingly equally matched birds will as often result in one male breaking away to challenge another, as it does in all-out warfare between the two challengers, though brief as it is.

Fights are usually averted by posturing and vocalizations, but sometimes when threats don’t work, or dominance cannot be established in other ways, then physical altercations are the only resort.

Courtesy / Project Upland

At such times the two feuding grouse rush forward, sometimes striking with their beaks, but more often slapping one another with their wings and feet as they jump and jostle in a noisy blur of feathers.

Meanwhile, as males compete with one another for lek position, constant displaying for females is going on, too. Contrasting beautifully with their bright yellow eye lores, male sharptails puff out brilliant lavender air sacks alongside their necks while producing intriguing “plopping," somewhat “watery” noises for both visual and auditory effect.

Coos, too, emanate from lovesick males seeking the attention of female onlookers. Along with these displays and vocalizations, male birds also perform the classic dance that the species is so famous for.

With their namesake “sharp” tails held upwards, their wings extended from their sides and their heads lowered to just above the ground, dancing sharp-tailed grouse rapidly click their tail feathers and stamp their feet.

Keeping their air sacs visible, male sharp-tails emit a dizzying array of vocalizations that, aside from those already mentioned, include cackles, chirps, whistles and cries.

Should one or more females choose to approach an active lek, activity among the performing males becomes especially frenzied.

It’s as though a switch was turned on when a female sharp-tail enters the lek. If she likes how a particular male dances — typically the dominant bird located in the central part of the lek — then copulation occurs.

Leks are normally located adjacent to the birds’ preferred habitat of brush and grass, which also serves as nesting habitat for female sharp-tails.

Additionally, a preferred lek is usually free of tall grass and brush, consists of sod-type soil that enhances sound and facilitates ease of dance and sight ability, and is often situated on the top of a slight rise in topography relative to the immediate, surrounding surface.

Stamping feet, clicking tail-feathers, strutting and peculiar sounding clucks, coos and hoots make for a must-see sharp-tail event, as we get out and enjoy the great outdoors.

Note: Premier public-land locations to possibly view sharp-tailed grouse dancing on their leks in northwest Minnesota include state wildlife management areas, federal waterfowl production areas, and national wildlife refuges, as well as land owned by The Nature Conservancy, in Kittson, Marshall, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake and Roseau counties. Sharp-tails can also be found in western Becker and Beltrami, Clearwater, Mahnomen and Norman counties.

Blane Klemek is a Minnesota DNR wildlife manager. He can be reached at bklemek@yahoo.com.