Greater Prairie Chicken

[David Salem]

My good buddy Glenn and I decided to make a trip this season to eastern Colorado to look for lekking Greater Prairie Chickens. We were fortunate to get some good tips from some fellow BPNers and wound up in a great spot to shoot the breeding rituals of these beautiful grouse of the open plains.
I have been hunting these guys in the winter with my falcons since the mid 80s in Nebraska but I had never been to a lek. A lek is the term for an open piece of land that grouse use to court females and to spar with the other males for the right to breed. It was awesome and we got lots of great frames from portraits to flight shots.
This is one of my favorites as they are very difficult to catch in flight. Not only was I was fortunate enough to catch one in flight, I was able to get a few frames with some nice green fields in the BG. Hope you like him.

D5---600mm---f5.6---ss1/3200th---ISO800---Handheld from car@4:45pm---30% crop

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. I appreciate it

David

[annmpacheco]

So fantastic Dave, beak open, sharp, wing position, and the colorful BG. What a blast it must have been to see the lek and shoot the action. Rock star club for sure!

[Bill Dix]

Pretty amazing, David. We've seen plenty of shots of the lekking (and I hope to see some of yours soon); but I don't remember ever seeing a flight shot of them. Thanks for sharing this beauty. Love the detail, open beak, light and the great BG.

[William Dickson]

IQ is soooo good. Well done David in getting this flight shot during a lek. If these are anything like our Red or Black Grouse, getting a flight shot, is not easy. But you did it, with the perfect IQ and flight pose. Great work.

Will

[Daniel Cadieux]

Super cool! Good wing position, and the slightly open bill adds to the image. Sharp too. I'm wondering if the midtones are a bit bright? A productive time for sure - you must be thrilled with this frame!

[kevin Hice]

Nice shot David as I have shot many Chickens and Sharptails. For sure can be difficult.What I like about this particular shot is the green background. Makes the bird pop.I guess Daniel might be correct on the midtones could be a little darker. But then again with the light would have some effect.

[David Salem]

Thanks everyone!!

[David Salem]

Super cool! Good wing position, and the slightly open bill adds to the image. Sharp too. I'm wondering if the midtones are a bit bright? A productive time for sure - you must be thrilled with this frame!
Thanks Daniel.
I actually thought about boosting the mid tones using curves just before I finished processing this. It was a bright evening and I already had reduced the highlights and exposure a bit so I didn't think it needed it but looking at now I might adjust it a little before the master TIFF is done.

Thanks for looking out and for your suggestion.

[gail bisson]

What a fantastic flight pose.
Love everything about it but agree the whites look really bright and I would address that.
What is growing in the fields that gives the minty green color?
Very nice frame!
Gail

[David Salem]

Thanks for the sharp eyes everyone. I reduced the exposure a little and increased the mid tones. Looks much better:S3:

[David Salem]

What a fantastic flight pose.
Love everything about it but agree the whites look really bright and I would address that.
What is growing in the fields that gives the minty green color?
Very nice frame!
Gail

Thanks Gail!!

Actually was pretty funny how it worked out. The landowner lets other people and groups on his property to watch the lekking and when we talked to him he said that there were a few Audubon groups at the better leks but he had one right next to the cattle yard that we could go to. It wasn't the best one he said and it was right next to the barn.
When we got there we were kind of disapointed because the barn and railings were sometimes in the BG. The good thing is that it was on the top of a knoll and we were able to set ourselves up with distant BGs as opposed to the other leks that had close wild grasses right behind the birds. Also because it was in the cow pasture there were lots of clumps of green grasses everywhere so it gave us some really nice BGs. So by moving around quite a bit, we turned lemons onto lemonade:w3 You should try this sometime. It was a lot of fun and lots of action!!

Thanks again

[John Mack]

Top notch per usual. The pose and light are right on. The repost is well done.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Beautiful Image. I love everything about this image. From head angle, wing position to background.

Congrats on the capture.

[Tim Foltz]

Dave, the re-post is much better, lovely in-flight of the chicken of the prairie. Light looks like it was a bit harsh but you did well my friend.

-Tim

[arash_hazeghi]

wow, what a pose and excellent wing position, tack sharp too. I agree it was a bit too bright repost is great I'd tone down the face and the base of the beak a bit more