SPRING TIME IN THE SIERRA'S TIME FOR SAGE GROUSE COUNTS AND FISHING

There is nothing quit as wonderful as springtime in the mountains. Each day as the trees green-up, the skiing almost over and the high pressure lifts warm Pacific air current over Blue Canyon, is when the Great Basin Desert wakes up from a winters rest.  Sage grouse males find their historical leks and display themselves to pass on their DNA. Females wait at the fringes to see which dance pleases her the most and in a moment she is fertilized. Against all odds with raven, coyotes, late freezes, low water, she will spend the next 8 months alone with her brood.  These birds are highly adapted to the vegetation, winter cycles and drought that before the introduction of European agriculture they had leks at most natural seeps and springs. Now they are decline probably due to West Nile Virus resricting the gene pool and water psring tapped for unuglated like cattle and feral horses

In Nevada they are declining fast.  Nevada is a very fragile ecosystem in the rain shadows if the Sierras and competition for water is fierce