SQUARE LAKE: A PROTECTED SAGE-GROUSE LEK AND MORE

Wood River Land Trust protected the 320-acre Square Lake Preserve in 2004 thanks to a generous donation from the land’s previous owner.  Surrounded on all sides by public land, the Preserve protects a large expanse of sage-grouse habitat that provides a home for pronghorn, pygmy rabbits, sagebrush lizards, sagebrush voles, horned larks, sage thrashers, and a variety of other birds.  In addition, Square Lake is home to a sage-grouse mating area known as a lek.

Male sage-grouse perform their mating displays in early spring.  They gather at dawn in the center of the lek; females stay on the periphery to watch the displays.  Males puff out their chests to reveal bright yellow air sacs, fan their tail feathers, and strut around the lek to attract nearby females.  Their wing movements and inflating and deflating air sacs make a “swish-swish-coo-oopoink” sound.  After the mating season, male and female sage-grouse go their separate ways.

Sage-grouse have lived in the western U.S. and in southern Canada for over 10,000 years.  The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the number of sage-grouse in the west has declined by more than 50% since the 1880s due to grazing, fire, development, and other human and natural disturbances in sagebrush habitat.  Square Lake Preserve helps protect this increasingly rare bird.

We hope you will contact us in March to sign up for our ongoing trips to see the sage-grouse strut in April!

Photographs courtesy of Bob Griffith

Each spring, sage-grouse return to their preferred mating area known as a lek, where the males inflate their chest sacks, display their plumage, and woo the females in an elaborate display of avian machismo. Though sage-grouse habitat is declining throughout the west due to development, wildfire, and West Nile virus, the lek at Square Lake was protected in 2004 and birds continue their annual ritual in search of a partner.


Film clip courtesy of Cameron MultiMedia LLC, Kathleen Cameron, and Larry Barnes.