Can we talk about Leks?

[ronbco]

I drove to the places used for a couple recent ebird checklists for the Sharp-tailed Grouse "known lek" in PNG (Pawnee, east unit, north). I found no Grouse or anything that looked like it might be a Lek. Certainly I've never studied Leks and only know that the birds come out pre-dawn. Photos of birds on the checklists have shown a single individual on a fence.

I would have been very happy to see a single bird.

One of the locations was about as barren/short grass as you could ever imagine and I can't imagine birds congregating there and certainly there was no where to hide.

My guess is that there is an unwritten rule that precise Lek locations are not to be shared to protect this sensitive breeding location. But there must be some middle ground where we can save people from long drives to inaccurate locations. Or maybe it was the right location but you only have a long shot to see them on any given day? In my case I car camped in a designated primitive camp area several miles away but did not go pre-dawn because fog rolled in over night and I never would have found the road in that fog.

What's the story?

Thanks

Ron Bolton

Berthoud