07/28/2022
Little bit of a different post here this time, but I thought I’d share a bit about why I haven’t posted at all as of late. A few months ago I began working with the and Great Basin Bird Observatory as a field technician studying the Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in Northern Nevada. Called the “symbol of the West”, this large “chicken-like” ground bird is a threatened species found only in the Western United States that relies entirely on rapidly declining sage-brush habitat for all stages of its life. These birds are well known for the male’s courtship routine — large groups of males gather in specific areas (called “leks”) generation after generation and display for females by strutting back and forth, fanning their spiked tails and thrusting the bright yellow air-sacs on their chest forward, creating a surprisingly loud popping sound. Due to climate-change worsened drought in the Western US and decades of fire suppression policy, large wildfire events have become increasingly problematic in sage-brush ecosystems, often burning through these historic leks. Once a fire moves through these ecosystems, like the Martin Fire of 2018 which burned over 400,000 acres in northern Nevada, invasive grasses move in and out compete the sage. This, along with overgrazing, has slowly transformed much sage-brush habitat into grasslands. As such, the Greater Sage-grouse has seen severe decreases in population size without its main habitat requirement and food source. That is why we are out here in the freezing cold and blistering hot getting this data — to help preserve what was once a prevalent species from an untimely extinction.
None of these photos were taken with my camera, so excuse the quality of some, but I had to share these with you all. Please continue reading to learn more about each of these photos and the process of monitoring this fascinating species! I put the photos in chronological order over a period of 4 months.
Picture 1: a male sage-grouse after capture and before tagging. That yellow skin peeking out on the chest are his air sacs which are part of his respiratory system but also used in courting females. Capture of sage-grouse requires a relatively moonless night, a spotlight, a white noise machine, and a large fishing net. One person spots the bird using the spotlight and binoculars while the second person stands behind the spotter with the net. We look for the blue reflectance of the birds eyes (“eye shine”) as they roost on the ground, and once they are spotted we position ourselves to approach the bird head on. With white noise blaring to mask our steps, the spotter starts to shake the spotlight in an effort to confuse the bird before we run in complete darkness to carefully but swiftly place the net over the bird and pin it to the ground. Once removed from the net, we take measurements of weight, wing length, leg and feet size, and other biometrics. Then an ID band is placed around the birds foot and a VHF collar is secured around the neck (for females) or GPS backpack on the back (for males and some females). The bird is only in hand for less than 30 minutes and then released.
Picture 2: yours truly holding a female in 15 degree Fahrenheit (-9 degree Celsius) weather. I was sure grateful for all that fluff of hers warming my hands, it’s not surprising how these birds are so adapted to the cold!
Picture 3: a GPS unit or “backpack” attached to the back of a male. The straps go around the shoulders of the bird, and after an adjustment period the bird functions as if it is not there.
Picture 4: the view while hiking with pounds of equipment. Notice the large net!
Picture 5: searching for collared sage-grouse with the use of radio telemetry equipment. The VHF collars placed on females constantly send off an inaudible signal at a specified frequency, and during nesting season we use a large metal antenna (a “Yagi”) and receiver to locate the collared females. This requires going to different high places and doing broad scans as well as specifically locating a nesting bird within a 20-30 meter circle. Getting eyes on the bird would take usually 1-2 hours of searching with binoculars for just the curve of a birds back under the sage.
Picture 6: a hatched sage-grouse nest. Notice how some of the open shells look like they have large sections of shell shoved inside of them. This is done by the female after hatching, potentially to help hide the nest from predators since she will likely return to that same spot next year to nest again.
Picture 7: an unhatched egg presumed non-viable as it was found intact amongst a hatched nest.
Picture 8: a sage-grouse chick approximately 10 days old. We went out and captured collared hens and their broods (groups of chicks) in order to attach VHF trackers to a few chicks. This allowed us to better track brood survival as well as movements of females between wildfire burned locations and unburned land using their GPS positioning.
Picture 9: a VHF collar and leg band. When a collared hen is either predated or dies for any other reason, the VHF signal changes slightly to signify a mortality. Us technicians then go find that collar and search for any evidence of predation. This collar and band were found with just a few snapped feathers, signifying a mammalian predator!
Picture 10: the wing of a grouse
Picture 11: another dapper-looking male sage-grouse
