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A Black Grouse Lek in Wales

     


 

I had been meaning to visit a well know spot in Wales to see a Black Grouse Lek which I’ve never seen. My good birding buddy, Nick,  has visited recently and posted some great photos. I hence thought it was time that I got my finger out and went to see this rather unique avian experience.

 

Armed with the usually excellent info from Nick , I booked myself into a local Travellodge on Tuesday night and drove up onto the moor in the dark to recky the location. I had chosen a day forecast to be sunny with an overnight frost which, hopefully, would provide excellent conditions for photography. The only danger was whether there would be an early morning mist over the moor. The lek starts before dawn and continues for an hour or so after so an early start is essential.

 

There is one very extremely important piece of information to know if you plan to visit a Black Grouse lek, it’s absolutely forbidden to get out of the car and disturb the lek. Hence the well know methodology of using the car as a hide is essential.

 

I drove up the small windy road onto the moor in the pitch dark on Wednesday morning and parked where Nick had told me to just before 04:30. It was a somewhat strange and unnerving experience being on my own and very isolated in complete darkness on the moor and your mind can play tricks on you. I certainly understand how strange myths and legends of the moors arose in olden times.

 

Around about 04:45 a weird bubbling noise starting coming from somewhere in the darkness accompanied  by the occasional shriek. Hopefully this was not one of the demons of legends but was the song and call of a male Black Grouse! Dawn was at 06:00 and around about 05:00 the darkness slowly transformed into an early morning dark gloom and I became aware of black ghostly shapes moving around somewhat surreally on the moor while all the time the bubbling and shrieking was becoming louder and louder and more frequent. As the light slowing increased the shapes slowly became black and white blobs quickly  condensing into the male grouse displaying on the lek.

 

With no mist on the moor and a sharp frost on the ground, viewing conditions were every bit as good as I hoped for and I tried but failed to avoid the temptation of starting to take pictures when it was still gloomy.

 

The cock's fancy plumage is predominantly black with deep-blue hues on his neck and back, which contrasts to the white wing line and undertail coverts, as well as red bare skin above each eye.

 

The lek was a truly unique, bewildering  and wonderful natural experience for me and I was absolutely enthralled by the antics  of the males. Their bright white tails were fluffed up to the maximum extend resembling white pom- poms.  The males would slowly approach each other with tails and wings extended to increase their size and then back off again before repeating their dance steps like an avian version of the okey-kokey. Occasionally they did not back off and  a short burst of handbags at dawn would ensue. On just one occasion this developed into a full blown punch up with the two antagonists rolling around on the ground in a cartoon like chaotic ball of feathers and claws from which both males remarkably seemed to escaped unharmed.

 

I had a maximum count of eight males.  I read that in Russia 200 males have been recorded at a single lek, now that must truly be something to behold. I thought there would be females present checking out the males for a suitable partner but I never saw one, perhaps they had already selected their husbands and had wisely decided to stay at home! Afterall she does take all responsibility for nesting and caring for the chicks.

 

As time went on there was less and less bubbling, shrieking and dancing with more attention being paid to preening and pecking at the ground. Then at 07:30, initiated by some unknown prompt, they all flew off and the lek was over.













 

As I drove down from the moor I saw a Dipper and, rather oddly, a pair of Mandarin on a fast flowing stream. After a spot of breakfast I drove to another site recommended by Nick the Bod Petrul picnic area in Clocanoeg Forest. I walked one of the longer forest trails in the warm dappled sunlight while looking for Siskins and Crossbills. Siskins seemed to be almost omnipresent with their song accompanying me along the walk. A somewhat comical moment occurred when I was looking up at a fir cone laden tree trying to find a Crossbill which I had heard. As I was staring up a female Crossbill landed no more than at meter from my feet, picked something up from the ground, looked at me suspiciously and then flew back into the tree.

 

After a late café lunch I made my way home. I will definitely revisit the  lek sometime  in the future. 


Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!  

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