It was still dark that morning when the compactly built, handsome male entered the lek to begin his display. He danced in the gray prelight as he kept an eye on the grass clumps hoping that the ladies who had been there the day before would reappear from the edges. Then even before the dawn spread its yellow pink warm glow over the scrub, a stranger swaggered onto the lek. Tall, robust, brilliantly colored and unwelcome, the Ring-necked Pheasant cock approached the Sharp-tailed Grouse while three grouse hens watched from the sidelines.

The pheasant’s demeanor was that of the territory owner rather than intruder. He walked onto the lek slowly, but confidently, with head and tail held high. As he neared the grouse, which was crouched and glaring at the pheasant in between short dance spurts, the pheasant assumed a bit more defensive posture as he anticipated the attack that was to come. The game little grouse jumped at the pheasant in a blur of wings. The bigger bird backed up a few steps and again came close. This happened several more times before the pheasant slowly strolled away and came back to repeat the sequence. He finally circled round some taller grass to watch from behind the grouse hens for awhile before moving down the trail, probably to return the following day.

Read the rest of the Scarths' column in our July issue...