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Viewing Sage Grouse

Eighty birds once were commonly observed. Now it's twenty to thirty.

By Andy Kerr

You can view sage grouse strutting their stuff--and if you are lucky, actual sex (don't blink)--during April and May.

From OR 205 about 27 miles north of Frenchglen (about 11 miles south of the turnoff to the Malheur Field Station/Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, go west on the road with a sign that says "Foster Flat 32 (miles)." It is just south of milepost 34. Go 8.4 miles on this road. The road will bend toward the southeast, and you'll be pointed directly at Steens Mountain. There will be two small juniper-covered buttes off to your left in the short-middle distance. The sage grouse are directly off the road to the left about 50 to 200 feet.

The best time to see them is between first light and sunrise. Eighty birds once were commonly observed. Now it's twenty to thirty.

It is taboo to get out of your vehicle! If you want to take a picture and you don't have the lens for it, tough feces. Go buy one and come back later.

Daily human disturbances on sage grouse leks could cause reduction in mating, and some reduction in total production. If flushed, grouse usually fly from the strutting ground and do not return again that day. Some leks are known to the public and are visited by photographers and other interested persons to watch the annual courtship rituals. Such activities need to be curtailed if they disrupt mating. Grouse are tolerant of automobiles and may be watched from fairly close range if the observers do not leave their vehicles. But the instant a person leaves a vehicle the grouse become alarmed and generally take flight, not to return again until the next day. Fortunately the mating season is fairly long (up to 2 months) so receptive hens will usually be mated.¹

¹Mayo W. Call and Chris Maser. Wildlife Habitats in Management Rangelands—The Great Basin of Southeastern Oregon: Sage Grouse. USDA Forest Service and USDI Bureau of Land Management. General Technical Report PNW-187. 1985. Page 19.

© 2000 by The Larch Company, L.L.C. Text reprinted with permission from

Oregon Desert Guide: 70 Hikes by Andy Kerr, published by The Mountaineers,

Seattle, WA.