May 7, 2010

Submitted photo - Chad Bell, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, releases a greater sage grouse captured in Nevada at the Clear Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Northern California.

   For the past f ive years, biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have traveled to northern Nevada to capture between 10 and 20 sage grouse to supplement the breeding population at Clear Lake, said Bridget Nielsen, Partners for Fish and Wildlife coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  

   Bird catching

   Two weeks ago, the biologists traveled to the Wall Canyon area of the Hays Canyon Mountains in northeast Nevada, she said.

   “You catch them in the middle of the night,” Nielsen said. “At night, they’re roosting and sleeping. You can sneak up on them and catch them with a net.”

   The birds are immediately transferred to Clear Lake and released, usually   within six or seven hours of capture. Radio collars are attached to the birds to allow biologists to learn more about their movements and habitat usage, as well as reproductive success.

   Over the course of two weeks, nine hens and five males were released at dawn at Clear Lake in an area where males gather to show off, called lekking, for prospective female mates, Nielsen said.

   “It’s really low stress the bird,” she said. There is only one known area where the Clear Lake sage grouse population continues this courtship act, Nielsen said, so the introduced birds are in the midst of their own species once they are released.

   The known nesting population stays on the refuge, and after mating, the females will choose an area of sagebrush to lay eggs. Last year, three of the radio collared females exhibited successful nesting and raised full broods, Nielsen said.

   Three motion-activated game cameras are set up in the area to observe the nesting areas and habits, as well as threats to the nest, such as predators and harassment, she said.